The Resurgence of the Light
by SurefireReadingFF
Summary: The Traveler offers the dead a second chance at life, but this Light has its enemy. A life-devouring Darkness encroaches on the broken Traveler's last domain. It sent its Ghosts all over to the brave dead who can turn the tide of this war as Guardians. Could a Ghost's findings in an ancient Cosmodrome provide the catalyst for a Resurgence of the Light?
1. Nowhere To Run

Chapter 1

Nowhere to Run

The Allied Earth army had held the Fallen a mile outside of The Cosmodrome floor about a week now. I witnessed thousands of Fallen die in the last few days, but I had seen an equal number of us die as well. Both of the skies were at breaking point. All stops are to be pulled, and the cosmodrome must be protected at all costs. Today would be a day to remember or forget.

I arose in my tent after powering down for the last few hours. The rain had stopped and had gathered in undisturbed mud puddles throughout camp. I stepped out of the dark green tent and saw a red sun rising just above the evergreen forest and scattered remains of planes and interplanetary ships. I looked down into on if the puddles.

I saw the blue face and yellow eyes of an Exo staring back at me. Despite its timeless face, the two lights made it look weary and worn; the blue was scuffed and scratched as well. 'At the end of today, I'll either be dead, or celebrating,' I thought. I ducked back into my small tent. I saw where I had taken off my armor, right next to the bedroll given to each soldier in this military. It was dark in the tent. The only illumination was the faint light emitting from the chest piece. I grabbed the pants and slipped on the boots. I pushed them up my legs and pushed a button in the center of the waistline. Several metallic clicks later, my entire bottom half was encompassed in white power armor. I also grabbed the chest piece and pulled it over my head and onto my torso.

I lightly touched the faint, pulsating light and heard another click. The white armor steadily extended from the original shape of the piece and slowly encompassed my bottom part of my chest, then my shoulders and all the way down to my hands. I pulled on the gloves once it finished. I picked up my semi-automatic rifle and helmet. Strapping it to my neck and pulling down the visor, I exited the tent and caught a ride that would charge directly into the fray only a half mile from the camp.

My helmet gave me several targets, most of them lightly-armored dregs. With two arms and the capability to shoot from hand to hand combat, via a small pistol, they were still dangerous. I fired off a few shots while running and shredded the armor and Dreg nearest to me. I saw a few soldiers near me and radioed them. "What have I missed?" I asked as I fired a few more bullets at a group of the Dregs.

A female Exo replied quickly in a panicked voice, "3 waves of Fallen, mostly Dregs and Vandals. Three Captains are on the field right now. There's only a few hundred of us left sir."

"Are you telling me we lost almost 2000 in reinforcements?!" I exclaimed.

"Reinforcements never came. They were shot down while you were gone. I'm sorry sir. We will not win; all we can do is hold the line until the cosmodrome has been evacuated."

"How long will that be?"

"Unclear. We'll just hold it as long as we can. Any plans for a counter-strike?"

I didn't respond. I just kept firing and searching for the Captains. They had four arms like their allies, but had thick armor and a shield around them. That combined with the heavy, four-shot plasma rifle they carried, they devastated our troops. A Dreg came around my piece of cover. I dropped my weapon, grabbed the combat knife stowed in my right boot and slammed it into the Dreg's torso. The Dreg fell dead as I retracted the blade from it. A small amount of its purple and red blood splattered against my white armor. I turned to get my rifle but was met with a white, armored fist. I felt myself fall onto something and darkness enveloped me.

When I regained consciousness, my vision was blurry and slightly off-color. I stared at the ground momentarily, waiting for it to clear. I stood up after I did and looked for my few belongings. My helmet immediately fell off as a heap of crushed alloy. My rifle didn't fare much better.

Nobody was anywhere. Dead bodies of Fallen and Earth soldiers littered the ground. I searched for a while longer, but only turned up dead bodies. A Fallen ship passed overhead, depositing a squad of vandals and dregs along with one captain. While I looked up, I noticed that there were still ships floating about the sky in the direction of the cosmodrome. I started to run that way, hopefully there would be room for me on one of those ships.

I reached it sometime later. The sun was nearly setting and ships varying in size and shape were still coming in and out of view indicating the evacuation was still proceeding. As u came over the hill, I saw a large disheveled mass of people near a door that led inside. I took a step forward but quickly realized something: I was still dressed like a soldier. There was no way the people would let someone on-board who should be protecting them with their life. I threw of the chest piece and leg armor, but kept the boots , they were worth the risk.

A long line of cars stood near the mass of people. Most of them were newer-looking. I stealthily came down the hill and ducked behind one of the cars. A few stragglers ran by. One was alone. I seized my opportunity.

"Hey buddy," I quietly called ducking from behind the car. The lone, cloaked figure pointed to himself and then proceeded towards me.

"What'd ya need?" the figure said in a slurred voice, obviously drunk, probably to cope with the current situation.

Without answering his question, I gave him a strong uppercut to the jaw. The man slumped over immediately, knocked out. I didn't normally injure civilians, but I needed to get out of here. I unceremoniously ripped the cloak off the man and dumped him in a nearby car. I slipped on the cloak and pulled the hood over my head.

I shoved my way through the crowd. The noise was loud in the back, but as I approached, it became unbearable. Thankfully, I didn't have to go much further to find out what was going on.

The doors were shut. Plain and simple. No more would go in; no one would go out.

Numerous humans, Exo, and Awoken were ask banging on the large doors in hopes of getting in, but no such rescue would doors were sealed. Suddenly, a loud, guttural roar resounded throughout the area. All heads turned to the hill I had come from.

Two Dregs and Vandals along with one Captain stood on top. While the Captain hung back, the Vandals and Dregs charged, slaughtering all without hesitation and with extreme prejudice. The vandals shot left and right while slicing through the large group. The dregs assaulted with smaller blades in each of their arms. Hacking through a large portion of the crowd. Needless to say, it was not a pretty sight.

I ran the other way. I ducked behind a green car and took cover, hoping they wouldn't notice me. I pushed into the wicked and saw that a man had the same I idea as me. Only, he had broken into the car and was watching out the window. The captain fired off his weapon. The first of the four balls of energy destroyed the window (the man had ducked just in time), the second destroyed the door, the third struck the man in the head and caused him to fall back, dead, and the fourth humbled my angle of observance.

At that moment, one if the dregs cane around the car. Before it noticed me, I had stabbed it in the foot with the knife in my boot, punched it in the head with my left hand and plunged the knife deep into its chest just like the one a few hours earlier. The other Dreg came around when it noticed its comrade was in trouble. I threw the knife at it and hit it square in the head.

The vandals came around both sides of the car. As they encroached, I stuck my hands out to possibly deflect their blades. I closed my eyes as I did this, waiting for the pain to come. It never did.

There was a loud boom. I opened my eyes and saw both vandals airborne. They slammed into the ground a few seconds later either dead or seriously injured. I turned to get back in cover. A fist slammed into my back before I could do so. I landed face first into the car.

I turned myself around in time to see the Captain standing over me when two fists reared back to finish me off. They shot forward. I felt the impact, and then nothing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Time passed while I sat in that void; I was sure of it. I was dead, forever doomed to sit here in this Darkness. Suddenly I heard something.

A distant voice sounded from far away saying, "Guardian. Eyes up Guardian." I paid no attention to the disembodied voice because I realized my eyes were open. The Sun illuminated the cosmodrome and its dilapidated frame. All the cars here were now rusted and falling apart. Several of the satellites that had once adorned its roof were severely broken or non-existent.

A floating device hovered in front of me now. I backed away quickly but moved nowhere as I was already pushed against a car. It hovered only a foot or so from my face. A blue eye was illuminated against a darker outside with white, pyramid-shaped extensions around it. It seemed as if the machine was split in half at the back as the rear "spikes" rotated some. The pyramidal plates around the eye moved as it spoke. "It worked! You're alive. You don't understand how long I've been waiting for you. Let's just say, you've been dead for a very long time, and you're about to see a lot of things you're not going to understand."

"Who or what are you though?" I questioned rather loudly.

"I'm a Ghost. Actually, I'm YOUR Ghost. We assist the Guardians as they work to defeat the darkness." the white orb thing said. A roar then sounded over the area. Very similar to one coming from a Fallen Captain. They were near. "We have to go. This is Fallen territory."

"How do I know you're not one of them leading me to a trap?" I swiped at the machine with my hand several times. It easily dodged each grab with a graceful increase or decrease in its low altitude.

"You don't. You're going to have to trust me on this one. I didn't bring you back to life, just for you to die again." It retorted rather sternly.

"And I'm supposed to listen to some AI I just met?" I was now shouting.

"Says the robot."

I didn't get easily offended, but that hurt. "Exo! Huge difference! Robots are slaves, Exos are sentient. I ought to break you apart for that!"

"Try me."

I lunged at the Ghost. As soon as I touched its white shell, it disappeared in a small wisp of blue light. "Where'd you go?"

"Don't worry. I'm still with you." I heard it's slightly lower tenor voice say inside my head.

"I never wanted you in the first place." I said in a hostile manner.

"Do you want to survive?"

"That would be preferable, yes."

"Then follow my directions. We need to get you to the City. Let's move."

I started walking forward. It was only after a few steps that I noticed that I was heavier than before. I stopped walking and looked down at my hands and feet. They were armor encased my torso, legs, and arms. My feet were covered by boots that were not mine, while my hands were covered likewise with a black, rubber-like substance covering the gripping side of my hand.

"What's wrong?" The Ghost inquired.

"Where'd this armor come from?"

"Standard issue. Sorry if it's a little bulky. It's Titan armor. I had to give you some sort of defense otherwise the Fallen would tear you to shreds and our efforts would be in vain. Is something wrong?"

Thoughts of what felt like my recent past swirled in my head. I had a decision to make. I could tell the Ghost what happened apparently some centuries before, or hide it for now. I chose the latter. "It's nothing let's get going."

"One moment actually. I need to give you a helmet. Hold out your left hand."

I did so. Nothing happened at first. Momentarily, a misty blue haze formed filled my a flash of light of the same color. The Ghost appeared and said, "Boo!"

Surprised, I extended my left arm and forward, in order to push the Ghost away, and fell backward. As I did so, a purple orb rapidly expanded in my hand and made a sound similar to the ancient rifles that used gunpowder in the ammunition rather than plasma. All that happened in a fraction of a second. Caught in the small blast, the Ghost went flying for several seconds. It regained stability and came back to where I lay on the ground, propped up on my right elbow.

All it said was, "What the Heck was that? If that was a Warlock Melee Blast, that is probably the strongest one by far by any Guardian. I should know, I've seen many warlocks in combat while I've been looking for you. Of course, we still don't know what Guardian you are. That'll be the Speaker's job. I'll just cough that up to the new connection between you and the Traveler."

"Warlock? Guardian? What are you talking about? I'm connected to the Traveler?"

"As I said, you're going to see and hear things you don't quite understand, but I'll explain the Traveler connection thing as it's the most important. Us Ghosts were made by the Traveler in its dying moments. We spread its light with our Guardians assigned by the Traveler. It watched Earth and its inhabitants during your life and deemed you, along with thousands or perhaps million of others, worthy of carrying on what it could not."

"And what would that be?"

"Light. Plain and simple. Now hold out your right hand. I have to give you a helmet otherwise your armor is basically useless. And with the Fallen crawling around, we can't have that."

"No tricks this time?"

"None."

Still suspicious, I held out my right hand nonetheless. The Ghost disappeared from view, but I could feel it's presence in my mind. A wisp of blue light appeared and banished just as quickly. Some sort of helmet ushered from it. It was heavy, the unexpected weight caused me to drop it when it hit my hand. It was very slightly curved in the front with an indented area spanning across the top. The indent didn't quite reach the sides of the helmet, instead it went down at the middle. Forming a curved T shape. It was white like the rest of the armor.

Noticing a flaw, I said, "It's completely enclosed. How am I supposed to see?"

"Just put it on." The Ghost reiterated.

I slipped the helmet on. Everything went dark. A click sounded below me. Images of what was around me projected in front of me, followed by a live feed and heads up display. Suddenly, I could see again. "Now do you trust me?" the Ghost asked. "I've given you armor."

"I'd trust you more of I had a weapon."

"They didn't give me that when I was first sent to look for you."

"They? Who's they?"

"I'll explain on the way. We need to find a ship to get out of here. Let's get moving."

Grudgingly, I started walking towards the door. The sane one that had been closed on me quite some time ago. It didn't even exist anymore, but I still felt barred from normalcy. I strode through the door, into the unknown.


	2. The Soldier Re-awakened

Chapter 2

The Soldier Re-awakened

As I entered the cosmodrome, a harsh roar resounded throughout the cemetery of cars and long-dead souls. "We really need to get inside. I understand I just revived you, but do you think we could pick up the pace a bit?" The Ghost warned as I looked back to possibly glimpse the source of the noise. I proceeded to walk a bit faster, almost a light jog.

A few minutes later, I had to stop and rest. My servos were not what they used to be. I told the Ghost, "I need to stop and rest for a minute."

"Understandable. I think we lost them anyway." I found a rectangular crate and sat against one of the longer sides and tilted my head back. I examined the hall that we were in. It was a darkened hallway with crates intermittently scattered against its narrow walls. The Ghost was lighting the way and floated near my head "blinking" every so often causing the area to go dark momentarily but then immediately getting dimly illuminated again. A thought hit me.

"You think there might be a weapon in one of these crates?" The Ghost said just as i was about to speak.

"That's what I was about to say. Why don't you use your teleporting powers to check them?" I said.

"That's not quite how it works. Besides, we need to test how your arms function."

Grudgingly, I stood up and faced the crate I had been leaning against. I pushed open the slightly opened lid; the only thing in there was straw. "Empty," I said.

"I can see that. Let's check the others." The Ghost retorted.

I walked over to another crate, apparently unopened as the lid would not budge. I cocked back my right arm and punched it. The contents spilled across the floor. Upon closer inspection, I realized there was some sort of yellow-gold casing in it that came to a point at the end. They looked like bullet casings

"Hold on, let me scan that. Is that what I think it is?" A short pause followed. "It can't possibly be...yet it is!"

"Stop playing the pronoun game! What are these things, and why are there so many of them?" I said rather harshly.

"They're bullet magazines for a Khvstov rifle. The numbers on the bullets say 7G-02 model. State of the art many centuries ago probably before you were built. Basically useless now, but it is a weapon. If we can find this gun, you can give this to the gunsmith for a lot of Glimmer. Now, let's find the actual weapon."

I smashed open a few more crates that revealed nothing useful. I looked back at where the ammunition had been only to find it gone. "Where'd the ammunition go?" I said apprehensively.

"I took it." The Ghost responded.

"I don't understand. Where would you put out? You don't seem to have any pockets."

"Each Ghost has an internal storage that allows us to save an object and then allow the Guardian to summon it at will. For instance, that's how I gave you the helmet."

'At least it made sense,' I thought. A large shadow cast itself upon the walls of the hallway. "Something's coming. Hit the deck!" the Ghost ordered as it disappeared. Once again, I could feel its presence in my mind. I dropped to a prone position.

I only looked up when the footsteps stopped. I began to stand up. I was about to step forward when something slid out from under my legs. I hit the concrete ground hard and a two metallic clangs echoed throughout the hall. One was me or rather, me hitting my armor internally (it was just a tad on the large side); the other was whatever slid out from under me.

The Ghost's light reappeared only for a second to show a small gun-shaped object. "Grab it!" I looked to where it shown. A black rifle lay near the wall, with some shattered glass next to it and a sling. I snatched it up and threw the sling over me. It clipped on my back, enabling me to throw back the gun and free up both hands. Given the current situation, I won't need to do so.

A magazine appeared in blue light within my hand. I placed the clip in the weapon and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I felt around the left side of the gun and found a slight protrusion that moved when I flicked my finger over it. I pulled it back and let go hoping that made it possible to fire. The shadow didn't seem to be here anymore. I moved through the hall and turned the corner. A rusted door and computer console lay in cover proximity to each other. "I'm going to scan that. Maybe there's a ship the Fallen haven't stripped down yet."

The Ghost appeared and floated off towards the computer. Once it approached, it emitted a grid-patterned, cone-shaped ray at the console. Once it finished, the Ghost floated back over to me. "I've got good news and bad news." It said, hovering in front of my face

"Give be the good news first."

"I've found a ship. We should be able to get out of here."

"The bad?"

"There's about five Fallen in there. Two Dregs, two Vandals, and a Captain."

"Where's the problem? I've faced worse in my days as a soldier."

"The Captain is a Major." I knew exactly what that meant. It was a high-ranking official in the Fallen's forces, likely a Baron or something.

"Well, it's worth the risk." I kicked down the door and shot all of the bullets in the clip in a few seconds. It took out the two dregs and maimed one'd the Vandals. I threw the empty clip and watched it dissipate in the blue light that signaled the Ghost taking it. A new one appeared in my hand almost immediately after. I slammed the new clip in and took cover.

I leaned out and let off a few rounds. The other Vandal fell dead clutching its torso. Apparently, bullets were still somewhat effective. I walked over to the injured vandal and placed my boot against its face. I pressed down until I heard a crack and was sure it was dead.

I looked up and beheld a ship. The word "ARCADIA" emblazoned on the side, still visible against the rust. "I'll investigate it." The Ghost said and flew up to it. "It needs a little work. Give me a second."

Just then, a four-armed Captain jumped down from one of the side engines of the ship. "We've got a situation." I said as I backed away and took cover.

"I can't do anything right now. I'm kind of repairing our escape. Just watch that white bar near the top of the helmet's HUD. That's the shield. When it gets to one-third remaining, the shield is gone and the armor is actually taking the fire. It will hurt immensely. Since your armor is pretty much useless, the pain will be all the worse, so it's best to keep that shield online. If it does drop, give it a second to recharge. I'm also activating an ammo counter on your HUD. Most weapons..."

"Good to know NOW! Especially since I have only 10 bullets in the clip left! Can you send me a new clip? I have a pockets for a few."

"I'm too far. You'll have to deal with the ones I put in your armor as we entered the room."

I stood out of my cover and fired at the Major. The bullets impacted the shield and then bounced back at me. One slammed back into my legs with an incredible amount of force, but I stood unmoved. I watched my shield meter near halfway. My ammo counter in the bottom left corner showed I had only five shots remaining. Suddenly, I had a plan. It was dangerous, but it just may work. I waited for my shield to regenerate and then decided it was now or never.

I mantled over my cover and fired four times, diving after the shots to avoid their ricochet. The Captain turned and fired while I was still on the ground. It's four simultaneous energy projectiles impacted me, one at first, but then the other three at the same time. I flew across the room and hit the opposite wall hard as well as the floor below me. My shield meter held only a sliver of red. The pain felt like it would cripple me, but I stood up and staggered forward. Somehow, I had held onto the rifle.

The Captain charged, an armored fist ready to finish me off. I grabbed the fist with my left hand and stopped it using the increased strength the armor gave me, but it was significantly less than what it would have been, granted the armor's current condition. I raised my right hand to the Captain's head with my finger on the trigger. I fired my last bullet.

The Captain was dead before he hit the ground.

I fell to my knees and dropped my weapon. Bright red letters flashed against my HUD:"Power Failure, Deactivation Imminent"

The helmet went black and I feel to the ground completely. Just before I blacked out, I heard the sound of engines firing up and the Ghost saying, "I'm bringing you in. It's time to head home."


	3. The Birth of a Guardian

Chapter 3

Birth of a Guardian

When I regained function, I was laying in my bed. As my vision returned, I noticed that the rim was a light green color with a pattern of the triangles in a line with a smaller one in the center cutting off two larger triangles (still smaller then the original three). The blanket that covered me had a similar color and pattern. It may not affect me as much as a human, but the bed was still quite comfortable.

The Ghost was hovering near the similarly green door of the room that adorned a smaller version of the logo on the walls. Below where it was hovering, a long wooden desk stood out against the room. Other than that, the room was empty aside from a mirror. The Ghost turned towards me. "Ah, I see you're awake."

"Yeah." I sat up in the bed. "I still can't believe that I'm alive." I stood up and walked to the mirror. Still the same blue face and yellow eyes staring back at me. Though, there was something different. The blue seemed less scuffed and worn, almost exactly as it lined before I enlisted...

I shook the thought and saw that I was wearing the same armor I remember from my days in the military. Screams of terror and images of death flashed throughout my mind. The faces of my dead brothers and sisters-in-arms flashed in and out individually. All of these images filled the mirror as well. I tried to wave them away, flailing my arms to no avail. I suddenly felt myself fall back onto the carpeted floor. I didn't move as the images moved from the mirror to all of my vision. It seemed like forever before I was picked up by arms underneath my shoulders.

The horrors still filled my view as I felt myself being almost dragged by the figures I couldn't see. I was dropped into a chair a short time later. I lost control of my limbs as the images reached a climax. I felt a hand touch my shoulder. The nightmares dissipated, replaced by a large white sphere. Cracks compromised its pristine surface especially towards the bottom where a large hole revealed some sort of infrastructure. It hovered above a huge city. Suddenly, the peaceful image of the Traveler disappeared.

I looked around. Four figures stood in front of me in a very open room. Some type of floating contraption whirled about in the center of the room. A desk covered in various things I couldn't see that well sat to my left. The four figures stood in front of a downward-leading stairway. The one on the far left looked to be an a thin woman of African descent somewhere in her ancestry. She wore a gray and light purple robe that seemed to have something solid beneath it, most likely armor plating based on the appearance of the other three there.

Next to her was a helmeted man dressed completely in white. The helmet had a strange design on it and it appeared as if he had some sort of cape. The white armor gave the mysterious man an imposing yet peace-bearing appearance. The man next to him was all intimidation with his white and red armor This one was a bald Awoken with blue skin. He wore white armor with a larger piece of armor attached to the left shoulder piece. He was heavily armored from head to toe. The last person standing there was a light blue Exo with a hood covering his head. He had a light blue "horn" extending from underneath the hood. He too wore a decent amount of armor, but nowhere near as much as the Awoken man beside him.

The helmeted man stepped forward. He should in what seemed to resemble an ancient British accent. "Hello Guardian. Welcome to the the Last Safe City on Earth. You are currently situated in the Tower, the home of the Guardians. To my left and right are the leaders of the Vanguard for all the Guardians of the Light. I am simply known as the Speaker. I am the voice for the Traveler, which has none anymore." It was at this point that I stood up. I saw my Ghost hovering just above my right. "This is Commander Zavala. He is in charge of the Titans. Cayde-6 leads the Hunters." I shook both of their hands as he said their names.

"Finally, this is Ikora Rey." The Speaker said. "She heads the Warlock division of the Vanguard." I shook her hand as well. "And your name is?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but the Ghost spoke first. "This is my Guardian, Maximus-44. He was a Captain in the Allied Earth Army during their last stand at the Cosmodrome once known as Stalingrad. He was killed by a Fallen Baron while taking cover behind a car when the Fallen initially raided the place."

The Ghost must have noticed I was staring at it. "When I revived you, it forged a connection between myself and you. In other words, I have your memories. Even some you may not even recall."

"Interesting. An ex-soldier. Sounds like you'll make an excellent Titan." The Titan Vanguard smiled. Noticing the Zavala's smile the Speaker said, "One moment Zavala, let's see where the Test takes Maximus here. Maximus give me your hand. We must see what connection with the Traveler you have. As the Ghost said, when he revived you, he sensed a connection not only because you are who the Traveler meant for him to find, but also because you have a connection to the Traveler that protects this city."

I gave him my right hand, remaining silent. Just before he touched it, the Speaker said, "The test is simply me touching your hand. If arcs of electricity run the length of your arm, you are destined to be a Titan which shows the Traveler gave you immense strength. If you temporarily disappear, the Hunters will be with whom you reside because of the great agility it gifted you. Lastly, if a small orb of blue-white energy forms in your hand, it shows an extremely powerful connection with the Traveler and a huge amount of internal power."

With that, the Speaker slipped off the lightly armored glove that covered my right hand and touched the center of my metallic palm. Nothing happened at first. Then, a blue-white orb materialized in the center of my hand. It steadily grew in size until it grew to about the size of my Ghost that moved to hover close to it. Suddenly, it began to expand rapidly. It started to encroach next my face. I shoved my hand forward just as it exploded.

When the smoke and dust settled, Commander Zavala was leaned forward slightly arms outstretched. A purple-blue energy shield enveloped all of us. The energy was almost tangible and had absorbed the blast. The Titan Vanguard dropped his arms and straightened his posture, and the shield dissipated. Ikora Rey had an overjoyed expression on her face as she realized she had a powerful warlock and ex-soldier in her division. The other two Vanguard leaders descended on the stairs and left.

The Speaker stuttered in a deeply astonished voice, "T-that was p-p-probably one of the strongest connections with the Traveler I have ever seen. Congratulations. You'll make an excellent Warlock."

Ikora Rey walked over to me and said, "There's not much time. We need to get you properly equipped and deployed as soon as possible." With that, we left. There was indeed, much to do.


	4. Preparations

Chapter 4

Preparations

It wasn't that far of a walk to the main plaza. After walking through a short tunnel, we arrived at the main plaza of the Tower. Stairs and small patches of greenery decorated a very open-feeling space. A series of pillars when what looked like computer screens a few feet from their base came out of the concrete. A good-sized slightly curved building with two openings was the only actual building set up. According to Ikora, that was a mail and special orders service

We then crossed the plaza to a stand with a hooded figure in front of it. Ikora did not explain his purpose, but since several armored figures I assumed to be Guardians much more powerful than me stood near him as he tapped away at a tablet, I assumed that his purpose would come to light in a short time.

Ikora actually stopped in front of a larger shop with an Exo keeper. Various guns occupied the table space as well as tasks behind the Exo. "Good morning Banshee-44," the warlock vanguard said.

"Hello Ikora. What can I do for you today? Do you need more Special Ammo Synthesis, I just got a fresh shipment this morning." Banshee said in a deep bass.

"I'm actually good for now, it's actually what you could do for Maximus here."

"You look like the person the Vanguard leaders just dragged through here. You must be new. Some Guardians have trouble with their new connections to the Traveler. I remember mine, had fits for weeks. But I highly doubt mine were as bad as yours." The Ghost floating near him seemed to snicker a bit.

"That's great Banshee, but as I said, he's new. You've done this long enough to know what that means."

"Alright. Sorry, just trying to be friendly. Since you're new, you most likely lack a weapon."

"I actually don't. We recovered something in the cosmodrome once known as Stalingrad when my Ghost revived me there. Ghost, if you don't mind."

My Ghost, who had been hovering just above my left shoulder this entire time, said "You got it." In flash of blue, the ancient rifle materialized on the table. Banshee picked up the black gun and examined it with amazement. Ikora Rey also seemed slightly taken aback.

"I have an ancient weapons collection, and I thought these were all but destroyed. I'll give you 6000 Glimmer for it."

"Deal," said the Ghost before I could speak. Despite having a metallic face that could not sore emotion, his eyes seemed to defy that logic and seemed to glow a bit brighter. He ducked underneath the table. There was some metallic clanging for a minute or so, and then the Exo gunsmith stood back up, four guns in his arms.

"Alright Maximus, you're going to need an ACTUAL gun to be an effective Guardian." He laid all four of them on the now-cleared table. He pointed to the first one that was very obviously an assault rifle of a slightly off-white color. "Here's an Auto-Rifle which is actually a more modern version of the Khvstov you just sold me. This one uses kinetic energy projectiles in a magazine with a mag capacity of 26. It fires quickly and fairly accurately and gets the job done right."

He now pointed to a gun that looked very similar to the assault rifle, but seemed a bit more sleek in its design as well as being rear-loaded. "This is a Pulse Rifle. It's very similar to the Auto-Rifle except that it is rear-loaded, fires in 3 shot bursts, and has more recoil than the Auto-Rifle. It's also made by SUROS, one of the most dependable brands." His hands now gestured to a gun that looked like a rifle, but had a hollow stock and a three-digit ammo counter; it was also rear-loaded with a slight slant towards the back side of the clip.

"This is a Scout Rifle. It's semi-automatic and rear-loaded. Very dependable Archeron gun. That's about all you need to know about it. Now we have a..."

"Revolver?" I interjected.

"Not quite, this is a Hand Cannon. The Duke Mk. 22 to be exact. Four shot capsule. It's slow, but when you hit a target, it will not be coming back up. Do not judge it by its small size."

I stood thinking about which I should choose for a couple minutes. My indecision clearly started to test the patience of Ikora Rey as surely she had more important things to do than show a newcomer what to do and where to go. I went ahead and picked up the Hand Cannon. "I'd like to go with this, but I want to know how to reload it as it is different from the others." I said putting it back down.

"Very good choice. And I agree; it probably would help. It's actually pretty simple though. Here take the gun. As well as a box of ammunition capsules." He handed me the gun.

I noticed that it was heavy, definitely a gun that required two hands to operate effectively. But, it was a comfortable weight.

"Alright, what you do is take your left hand from the gun and grab a capsule from the pocket, while you click your right hand to the left with a sight downward motion, but not too much. This should cause the cause chamber to come out. From there, tilt the gun upwards allowing the spent capsule to fall out. Finally, insert the new capsule with the larger flat side facing you, and sling your right hand to the right to lock the chamber in place and you're ready to fire again. Also, take this."

He handed me another white weapon. It had a short barrel with a partitioned tip. I hole with a trigger was in the rear part of the middle and a long black bar covered the bottom.

"This is a Trax Callum Fusion Rifle. It uses a battery good for 5 shots that have a modification to them, so void, fire, or lightning?"

Stunned by the question and holding a gun as well as a hand cannon without a place to put them, had nowhere to put the box of ammo capsules as well as one of the boxes of batteries he had set on the table. "Ok, is there a holster out something for this stuff? I can't hold all of this in two hands."

"That's why we catch Fallen!" Banshee laughed. "I'm kidding, there is a holster for the Hand Cannon and a sling for the Fusion Rifle. Hand the Rifle."

I have handed him the rifle and he handed me a holster. As he clipped the sling on it, I attached the holster to the back of my armor just above the waistline. The pistol fit snugly inside. I took the box of void batteries.

"I must warn you Guardian, the Fusion Rifle binds to that one type of ammunition when you attach the battery. Are you sure?"

"Yes," I said slinging the rifle over my head so that it hung on my back. I took the box of capsules and put them in one of them pouches on my left and put the box of batteries in the next pouch top the previous' right. I felt much heavier, but I had carried more as a soldier.

"Alright then Maximus, you're set for battle. Just remember to take care of that gun. It is your life after all," the gunsmith warned.

"Will do." I said walking with Ikora once more.

"Amanda Holliday, the shipwright and chief engineer will have your ship ready tomorrow. When she contacts you, I want you too report to the cosmodrome ASAP. Your orders are to patrol it with the two other Guardians we currently have stationed there." The Warlock Vanguard said. She suddenly handed me a large silver case. "This is your Warlock armor. Go to your suite and get out of that Titan garbage."

"Will do ma'am."

I stood in front of the mirror in my room. The Warlock about didn't actually have much armor to it. There was a thin layer of body armor along with heavier pants and boots. I threw the cloak over my armor. It was a light brown color along with the rest of my armor. The cloak extended nearly to the toes of my boots. It was parted in the front so as not to restrict movement.

The holster had to go underneath the cloak, but it was a minor hindrance. I slung the Fusion Rifle over me. Just to check that out would not fail on me, I reached back and grabbed the butt of the small rifle and pulled it forward to a firing position. The sling moved smoothly across the cloak allowing the advanced gun to prepare to fire rather quickly.

It was then that I noticed the white gun had no battery on the bottom. "Hey Ghost, how exactly do I load this thing?" I asked as it floated around the room.

"Take one of the batteries, positive-side forward and hold it to the bottom. A small button should extend and light up on the left side showing a color coordinated with the type of battery you're using. Since you picked Void, it will be purple."

I took battery from one of the pockets in the covered armor. The heavy battery was a little longer than my hand and was completely black. I brought the ammunition close to the bottom of the gun horizontally. Without expectation, the battery kept from my hand and clicked into place. 'Ah, it's a magnet.' I thought. The purple, rectangular button popped out just as the Ghost said. I attempted to just push it in, but it wouldn't budge. I slammed my hand against the button much harder and it clicked in.

"Now, it's live. Just don't hold the trigger," the Ghost's robotic voice warned. "Ready to go?"

"Sure. Where's the hangar?" I inquired

"Follow me."

I followed the Ghost to the main elevator that took us to Tower North. After stepping out, we proceeded through a large gate that opened up into a smaller area. Without looking at what it had to offer, we continued through a hall into the central plaza and through yet another corridor into an extremely large hangar area. Various ships lined the walls on the actual floor probably a hundred feet or so before us. I continued to follow the Ghost along the balcony. A set of stairs led down to a some sort of shop space with a robotic clerk in the right, and a group clad almost entirely in black and white congregated to the left near since crates. We pressed by then without a further glance and ascended a flight of steps to a similar shop area with a uniformed man working on something underneath a table.

A short-haired, blonde woman sat on top of a desk in the to left corner of the office. "Good morning Guardian. How can I help you?" She called.

"Uh, yes. I'm looking for Amanda Holliday. I was told I had a ship prepared for me?" I said. I could hear my Ghost chuckle a bit from my right shoulder, obviously amused by something.

"Well, I'm not sure I can see her around," the woman started looking with her hand on her forehead similar to that of an ancient lookout. She stopped and spoke once again, "That might be because she's right in front of you!" The lady, now introduced as Amanda Holliday, extended a hand. "You must be Maximus then. My apologies if I seem a bit disorganized. I stayed up all night working on that ARCADIA your Ghost brought me last night. Boy was it in rough shape."

"Nice to meet you," I said, shaking the extended hand.

"So, you've got patrol duty at the cosmodrome according to Ikora Rey," Holliday continued without missing a beat. She stepped towards a gate and opened it. "Right through here."

We descended down the stairs beyond a gate nearby. The spiraling steps led to the hangar's floor where I could see dozens of ships lining the wall. As we went, a brown ship flew into the hangar and landed on a large rectangular space. The space disappeared almost immediately after the landing gear touched it. 'So the ships are stored underneath,' I thought. 'Interesting...'

We soon stopped at a blue and orange colored ship with two engines sitting on the sides of the rear area on it. Their position made the cockpit seen to jut out extensively. It was in much better condition than when Ghost and I found it. The paint shined much more, and it looked like it was fit for interplanetary travel.

"You do know how to fly this thing right?" Holliday interrupted.

"I've got it," Ghost said before I could respond.

"Alright then. Maximus, you've got yourself a ship. Here are the keys..." she tossed insert a remote with the buttons on it. "...and good luck."

"Thanks," I said as she walked away.

I looked at the palm-sized remote. It had three buttons on it. A large, red, and circular button occupied the middle with the word "DISTRESS" marked on it. The other two were white and surrounded the circular one. The left button said "SUMMON" and the other had "LOWER/RAISE RAMP" marked on it. I pressed the latter, and a ramp lowered behind it, closer to the engines. We ascended the ramp into the ship.

The cockpit was not all that big, but it still had a professional feeling to it. Multiple bars were attached to different places. I sat in the lone chair behind the multiple screens that show the status of the systems onboard.

The Ghost floated around the cabin for a few moments, but then hovered next to my shoulder. "Let's get this thing started," Ghost said.

Suddenly,I could hear the engines begin to warm up. The screens lit up on my left and right, all showing success next to the diagnostic tests the ship had automatically when it was activated.

A few moments later, multiple metallic clicks sounded. "Locks disengaged, engines at optimal temperature, comms link successful, and...lift off!" the Ghost said.

I felt the ship lurch forward a bit and then turn to the left towards the opening of the hangar. A dull whine started behind me. When it reached its highest pitch, the ship shot forward and through the opening. Once out, Ghost pulled the ship into a steep climb. Although, I wasn't focused on the sky steadily turning into the white-twinkled blackness of space; I was staring at the white surface of the Traveler, the astronomical heavenly body that had forged a connection with me. Only when Ghost leveled off the ship did I realize that we were in a low-orbit and quickly heading for whatever dangers were ahead.


	5. The New Earth

Chapter 5

The New Earth

I sat in the black pilot's chair of my ARCADIA-class ship starting at the giant blue orb in front of me. Earth, once a thriving planet of several billion, was now reduced to just one safe city with approximately 100,000 citizens with just about as many Fallen looking for a way in. My Ghost and I held a low orbit until we were getting close to the cosmodrome. Though, that was still about 45 minutes off.

I took that time to familiarize myself with the ship. It was by no means a large one. My Ghost told me that ARCADIA ships were commonly used for travel between the Moon and Earth at their longest journeys. There was a bedroom near the back and an engine room, but not much else. I walked over to the bedroom and hung my cloak in there as the engines made the ship quite warm. I also hung the sling to my fusion rifle on an adjacent hook.

After doing so, I walked back to the pilot's chair and sat back down. Since the Ghost was flying, I placed the hand cannon on the flat console next to me. I then resumed my previous activity of staring at Earth. A short bleeping came from the ships comms system came several minutes later. I moved the Duke from the console and placed it in my lap. I hit the connect button and the Warlock Vanguard, Ikora Rey, appeared on the right side of the hardened glass that permitted my view. Her brown skin and buzzed hair showed experience rather than the youth that permeated her figure.

"Maximus, as I have previously said, you are to patrol the cosmodrome. It is imperative that we secure at least a portion of the area, so we can set up a stable base of operations, so we can launch strikes and other actions against the Fallen," she said.

"About that, I'm not expected to do this alone am I?" I inquired.

Ikora laughed. "No, no, no. We currently have two other guardians expecting you at the landing zone. The only way we can get anything done is through teamwork, so please do your best to get along with them. They are your fireteam. I'm not sure who the other vanguard have sent, so be prepared for anyone. I'll contact you when your fireteam has been ordered somewhere else." With that, Ikora's face disappeared from the screen.

The Ghost suddenly looked at me and said, "We're five minutes out. Go ahead and get ready. I'm taking her down to only a couple thousand feet from the surface."

"Got it," I replied, getting up. I flicked out the canister of the Duke hand cannon and made sure it had a full canister in it; I placed it in its holster and moved towards the back out the ship after it leveled out. I put the brown cloak on and slung the rifle over my head. As I made my way to the front of the ship again, I saw the large wall of the cosmodrome. As we went further down, large, dormant ships stood like rusted statues. Beyond that, a larger area with several large rocks and snow amongst rusted buildings laid itself in front of the ship. A singular waving figure stood next to some crates with a tattered red flag bearing a rectangle composed of white dots next to them. I grabbed the brown helmet and looked over its encompassing frame with an inset black visor. The front of the helmet had an upside-down "U" shape to it that partially covered the top of the black visor, but evened out at the bottom.

I put the helmet over my head and pushed down until I heard a click. Everything went dark momentarily, but then the HUD powered up and the ship cockpit filled my view just as before. The shield power bar filled up in the top center and an ammo counter showing the two weapons I had on me (plus a purple swirl next to the symbol for the Fusion Rifle denoting void ammunition).

"I'm ready," I said to the Ghost.

"Alright, when we exit the ship, the auto-pilot will engage and return to orbit. When we leave, just hit the summon button on the remote," it replied. "Dropping ramp."

The entrance ramp dropped, showing that we were hovering about 10 feet above where the armored figure was standing. The Ghost disappeared in a flash of light blue light and connected with my armor. I sprinted down the ramp and jumped.

I hit the ground hard enough that I had to bend my knees a bit to prevent any damage to myself but was otherwise alright.

I straightened up and drew my weapon, but I didn't take it much farther than letting it hang by my side. The once mysterious figure turned out to be another guardian as determined by his Ghost flying nearby. His however was a red color with white stripes. I didn't get to see much more of it before the red Ghost disappeared.

"You're Maximus right?" the other guardian asked. I simply nodded. "Good, well I am Lee Thompson. Just a small bit of information before we start our patrol, I was a Marshall in the City Police Force before a Ghost found me, so if someone refers to me as Marshall Lee, that's where it stems from."

"Ok then," I replied, struck by the randomness of the comment.

"Alright, let's get moving. I told Arla that we'd meet her at the Divide after I found you. This area should be relatively free of Fallen, so we'll get there in no time."

We began walking across the rocky terrain. An ancient-looking ship was crashed nearby. I kept my hand cannon in both hands pointed towards the ground, ready to spring up and shoot a target should the opportunity arise. Lee kept a blue auto rifle in its sling across his back. He also kept a shotgun on his back that crossed with the rifle. Though he kept his left hand on something silver on his belt.

Judging by his imperfect and slightly arrogant gait, there was a human behind the all encompassing helmet. His white, zigzag patterned chest plate and similarly patterned armor covering powerful-looking arms. The leg armor was red on the front and white on the back while the helmet showed the opposite. It was a strange combination, but I was not going to make a negative comment against such an imposing and powerful ally.

The Titan continued forward with me in tow. We stopped in front of a steep hill with a metal railing in front of us and a path of cleared snow leading down through and then up the adjacent hill. My Ghost said something next as we stopped. "Hey, Maximus. Not to interrupt any conversation..." (we had not started any meaningful conversation) "...but we have new permissions granted by the Tower."

"But I haven't done anything yet."

"I know, but it sends that Ikora put in a good word for you with the other vanguard. You're now a rank three Guardian. They've automatically unlocked the Grenade function of your armor as well as the Glide function. The suit will automatically start charging a grenade from the amount of energy each piece of armor lends to the total amount, but it takes discipline till know when to use them. It seems that it's a Vortex Grenade. When it makes contact with a target or the ground, it creates a large purple orb that damages anything within the energy field it creates."

"Ok then. This gliding thing, is it...?"

"Safe? Completely. Just don't lose concentration. If you do, you'll fall," my Ghost answered. "Just jump and think light thoughts."

"Ha ha, very funny.," I said sarcastically. "You're life isn't at stake."

"But you're a robot..." Ghost struck back.

"Exo, and you're safe. All you have to do is disappear into my suit!" I seethed indignantly.

"That's not exactly how it works."

"Then how does it work?" I retorted.

"There's no time to explain," Lee interrupted. "Like I said, Arla it's probably waiting for us. We need to get this Ghost analysis of a plane's black box for New Monarchy, and then hurry over to The Divide, so if we could go ahead and get across that would be helpful."

"He is right," Ghost said.

I simply pushed him to the side as I approached an opening in the metal railing but backed up a few yards to get a running start. I put my gun in its holster and made a run for it. I jumped just before I fell into the fresh snow 15 feet or so below me. Almost immediately, I heard a sound similar to that of gas being released from a high pressure tank. Thus sound continued throughout my short flight across the two hills.

When I looked down momentarily, I realized that I had actually gained a few feet of altitude and was moving forward at a speed almost equal to that of a casual jog. A few seconds later, I looked at the approaching opposite side of the valley between the two hills. 'Not bad for a first time,' I thought.

I immediately regretted that thought. The sound suddenly stopped and I felt myself falling. Impact with the snow was quick and sudden. My helmet's visual sensors went black from the impact, but the HUD returned a few moments later. I turned over in the snow. The weight of my armor and myself created a small hole shaped similar to myself with a few caved in edges. My shields were at just above half from the impact despite the snow. Lee looked down from the top of my hole and gave a hearty laugh as he extended a hand to help me up.

I accepted the offer, and we then trudged through the gathering Russian snow onto the cleared path. We stayed on the path this time and made our progress up the hill quickly. A largely flat expanse out snow and large, intermittent boulders stuck out against the rusted corpses of ancient airplanes from centuries before.

"They call this the Mothyards," my Ghost started. "The Fallen sent out a fake Guardian distress beacon to attract the attention of various planes and ships taking survivors to The City. They came quickly, one right after the other. The Fallen slaughtered thousands in a matter of two days. The death toll included 200 Guardians sent soon after reports of the Fallen came in."

"At any rate," Marshall Lee said while preparing his weapon as he spoke. "We need to get to the second plane. That's the one New Monarchy wants analyzed. Let's go!"

Suddenly, Lee was off. Caught by surprise, I too began running not far behind him. I pointed my hand cannon in the air as I ran so as not to accidentally shoot my foot. We pressed the first rusted plane and saw no Fallen in sight. The radar was clear as well.

The Titan was silent when we approached the large airplane. He held his left fist up, indicating for me to hold position. I complied and just looked at the long-destroyed plane.

The fuselage was mostly intact. The left wing was in the air and it was slightly tilted, but seemed stable. The vertical closing door was rusted in an upward position. Various crates and other items were stacked on one another. By now, the snow had stopped, but the footprints from our boots had already filled back up with snow. I started to get that cliche feeling that it was too quiet. Then I heard it. The sound of a large ship applying its braking systems. From the direction of the large building with satellite dishes atop it, came a Fallen ship. It hovered for a moment, allowing six figures drop from it and then sped off in the same direction it came. I spoke into the comms system, "Hey Marshall, you finished yet? We've got company."

"Not yet. The Black Box is in terrible shape. My Ghost is having to work with it a bit. I'm exiting the plane while he works," he responded.

"He?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's customary to name the Ghost's, at least among humans. I call mine 'Striker.' What about yours?"

'' I haven't really thought about it; I'm a little more concerned about the Fallen that are only 200 meters or so from out position." I knelt down behind a rusted barrel and readied myself for my first action in quite some time.

"Alright, I'm exiting the-OOF!" I heard a large crash and a short screech of metal on metal. I left my cover to investigate. I found the rusted airplane down on top of the squashed form of Marshall. The door was on his lower-back, just below the barrel of the shotgun, and kept him in a very disadvantageous position. He was struggling to grab the rifle that had flown out of his hand several feet but not quite a meter.

I quickly came to it and was about to kick the weapon back to him when the large, four armed form of a Fallen Captain jumped right in front of me. I could see two Vandals and Dregs taking up a circular formation around me. I was surrounded. While frozen in surprise, the Captain swept me off my feet, into the air, and then landed a two-handed uppercut while I was in midair. I could feel myself flying, but I couldn't see anything for a moment as the helmet went black for several seconds. I activated Glide only long enough to stabilize my descent and avoid further loss of my shields. The HUD reactivated once I touched down on the ground rather hard. A half of the shield's power was gone, but recovered quickly.

I stood back up and analyzed my situation. The Fallen basically stood there leering at me with the colored lights that showed where their eyes were. "Hey Ghost, how do I activate the Vortex Grenade?"

"Not really the time for a tutorial, but essentially you open your left hand and then clamp back down, it'll be there. There is a several-minute cool down, so make it count."

Suddenly, I leaped forward and fired a few shots at the two vandals not far in front of me. One fell dead while the other one began bleeding profusely from the leg. I fired off the last couple of shots in the clip his way and slammed a new cartridge into the chamber. I opened my left hand and when I closed it, something hard prevented me from closing it into a fist. Without looking at it, I dropped my right hand holding the hand cannon and slung my left hand across my chest horizontally and then throwing. The grenade was a harsh white light in the center with a purple edge and tail as it flew through the air.

It landed at the feet of one of the Dregs and created its spherical purple plasma about a meter off the ground. The Dreg closest to it literally disappeared into a purple outline and into nothing within a second. The other was hurt slightly from the vortex, but it didn't stop to think of its injuries. It fired off a few shots my direction. I dodged the slower-moving energy projectiles easily and fired off my own shots that hit the Fallen infantry unit square between the glowing eyes.

I confirmed that the four Fallen were dead, and set my sights on the Captain in front of me. I could see the slight, light blue glow of his shield. As we stared each other down, I observed his darker blue matte armor and the blades it clutched in its hands with small arcs of electricity intermittently coming off of it. Part of the HUD zoomed in on its face while Fallen faces cycled through on the left side of it. It eventually settled on a face and declared a match, Rhyn'iks the Aggressive.

"That's one of the House of Wolves Barons, or should I say, Baroness. We may want to kill her now because they don't leave their skiffs too often. Her troops alone have killed over 20 guardians. I suggest taking out a Fusion Rifle to get rid of the shield and finishing it off with the Duke."

"I'll take your advice." I put the hand cannon in its holster, unlocked the clip on the rifle and slung it to me. Prepared to fire, I came a few steps closer to the Baroness. Suddenly, she jumped into the air and lunged with two swords (her right, my left) poised to slash downward. I pulled the trigger and heard a growing whine. Just as it hit a high pitch, the golf-ball sized ball of light that had grown at the end of the barrel disappeared and released three lines of fast purple energy straight at the Fallen official.

One bolt hit her leg, the second struck the chest, and the last pummeled her helmeted head. It seemed that the large amount of recoil had actually helped me in the end. The first two shots had disabled the shield, and the third knocked her off her bearing and she crashed into the ground. Clearly hurt by the shot and the impact. I slung the Fusion Rifle back and took out the hand cannon again. I fired two rounds, one into each leg, immobilizing her and left the once-powerful Fallen Baroness writhing on the ground. I unloaded the last two rounds of the cartridge into the armored elbows of Rhyn'iks and calmly placed another clip in. I fired three shots up her back and knelt down by her head. The Baroness looked up at me and just stared. A gathering pool of blue blood began to cover the permafrosted soil benath us. Surprisingly, a scratchy and throaty voice came from behind the helmet, "The Wolves...will...devour...you."

"Not today sunshine." I placed the Duke on Rhyn'iks' forehead and fired the last remaining round, terminating the Baroness.

I reloaded and then hurried to Marshall Lee. He was still stuck beneath the door but had given up his efforts on dislodging the door. I kicked the blue rifle his way. I tried lifting the door to no avail, but the more I studied it to figure out what to do next, I realized something: This door was not actually a door, it was a depressurization sealer. These were used at their peak when I had been in the military for about 2 years. They had saved the lives of my squadron on a couple of occasions during spacial engagements with Fallen Skiffs and other ships.

I then remembered something. These doors were airtight, but they were not blast proof. I holstered the Duke and pulled out the Fusion Rifle. I charged up a shot and unleashed it at the door. The energy shots burned a rough hole in the door that left slightly molten metal. I repeated that two more times and created a horizontal hole in the door and on part of the metal around the door. I easily kicked in the remaining bottom half of the door, thus freeing the Marshall. He attempted to stand up, but fell down each time he tried to put any weight on his legs. Striker floated around the corner from within the plane and sent a beam of blue light around the Titan.

"Deep tissue bruising on his back and legs. Must have been from the door. This sort of thing happens in the field." The Ghost known as Striker said to me in a voice deeper than my Ghost's. "Hey, Lee. I summoned the ship it'll be in Blinking distance within 30 seconds.

Lee sat up against the plane, grunting through the very obvious pain. "And the Baroness?"

"Dead," I said matter-of-factly.

"Good. She was the reason we were patrolling the area. We ran into her once and at the Divide a couple days ago. That's why Arla was there. I was going to make a sweep here up to the Refinery where one of her top Captains is. No use in getting her whereabouts when her body's right there."

"Lee," Striker interrupted. "I contacted Arla to meet us here and take off for the Tower, and 20 seconds until Blink."

"Don't worry. I'll wait here for her," I said. "I might as well meet her anyway."

"Careful, she can be a bit full of herself. She's an awoken; they take honor very seriously," Lee paused for a few seconds. "...Just don't make her mad. After all, we have to work together." He gave a weak laugh.

He and his Ghost disappeared in a flash of blue light a few moments later. I made sure all of my weapons were securely holstered and sat down.

Something was noticeably wrong. I killed five Fallen; six jumped off that ship. 'Where'd he go?' I thought.

My answer came not long after as I spied a Vandal tearing into some rags on the hill. I took up the Duke and charged, unloading two shots into its white armor. It fell dead not knowing what had hit it from the side. I kicked the rags with the toe of my boot. It moaned. I knelt down and started moving the rags. Multiple slices had been ripped i othe cloth that I now recognized as a brown cloak similar to the one that Cayde-6 had back at the Tower, marking the injured figure as a Hunter. I tore off the helmet that looked very similar to a pilot's. It revealed a woman with green skin and messy brown hair with a face contorted in pain. Slashes were cut in her armor, and she was bleeding from a laceration in the left side of her armor. I started to apply pressure to stem the bleeding which was working for the most part, but her purple blood still seeped through.

A purple and black patterned Ghost flashed in and said in a higher-pitched voice that was still similar to my Ghost's, "Arla, I've called the ship. The ICU is being prepared as we speak."

"Thank you Stargazer," the Awoken Guardian said opening her eyes only for a moment before she closed them again. Her head then turned to the side and I could tell she lost consciousness likely from blood loss.

I thought of her eyes. They were a bright green that seemed to glow against the whites of her eyes. They were full of panic (in that situation, whose wouldn't?), but they were also full of shame, as if she didn't want to be helped. I continued to apply pressure. The flow had slowed down significantly but had nonetheless coated my gauntlets in dark purple.

Without warning, I saw a flash of blue light, and my surroundings changed. I was now in a small room with a bed and various machines poised to connect. The Awoken Guardian, I now know by the name of Arla (the 3rd member of the fireteam), now lay on the floor with my hands still pressed on the wound. I stopped applying the pressure momentarily to lift her onto the bed. Blood began to flow again, but a machine immediately pushed down where I had left off on the wound. Machines began cutting the armor and I left the room. I would think her life would be more important than a few pieces of armor.

I moved to the front cabin and saw that we weren't that far off the ground, hovering just above the clouds. "Ghost," I said.

"Yeah," he said appearing in front of me.

"I need you to connect to the ship and have it go to the Tower. I'm likely going to pilot this ship there. Arla there is in critical condition and..."

"I've already contacted the Director."

"The who?"

"The Director, the navigation system. I actually just received confirmation that the ship arrived at the Tower just a moment ago."

"All right then. Can you activate the Director on this ship?" I said taking off the helmet and letting the Ghost transport it back to his inventory space; it disappeared in a blue flash.

"No can do. I'm YOUR Ghost, not Arla's, but Stargazer is busy keeping the specific systems in the ICU from killing your squad member or giving her too much aid."

"Alright then, show me how to pilot this thing," I said climbing into the pilot's chair.

"Alright, there is a console on your right like the one in our ship. Tap that and a map should appear." I looked to my right and hit a button on the console. A map showing what I assumed to be the Traveler over a semi-circular Earth with the Moon in the bottom left, Venus in the upper right, and Mars in the upper left appeared.

"Now, click on the Traveler and set the heading to the direction it says."

I set the coordinates and pulled back the thrust and felt the ship accelerate. I pulled up on the stick and broke the stratus clouds. The windscreen automatically wiped away the water droplets that gathered. On the right side of the screen, it showed that the ETA at a full burn was 15 minutes. I could only hope that Arla would last that long.

"Stargazer," I called back. The purple and black Ghost appeared from around the corner. "The ship is showing an ETA of about 15 minutes. Will your Guardian make it?"

"It'll be close. She's lost a lot of blood, and the ship doesn't have any transfusion equipment or mitosis accelerants. It'll be close."

"Good to know," I said. I pulled the thrust controller even farther back to a full burn. I could feel the G-forces pushing against me; they restricted my movement slightly but I could still move the stick well enough to fly.

A button flashed on the console: "Auto-landing."

I turned to my Ghost. "I thought you said that you couldn't connect to the Director on this ship."

"I didn't," he replied. "It must be part of the ships given systems. Either way, it's not in ours."

The Tower is dead ahead. I'd hit the button and prepare to disembark. I've already notified medical teams and they've cleared out a docking space in the main plaza for us."

I hit the button and the ship did adjust to the plaza docking space. As soon as the tunnel connected, men and women of both Awoken and Human origins as well as a female Exo boarded and took Arla to the infirmary. She was in bad shape. I could only hope that she pulled through.


	6. Eyes in the Dark

Chapter 6

Eyes in the Dark

3 days later…

I stood in the main plaza of the Tower. I was bent over the railing just looking out over the City with the Traveler overhead. NIghttime in the City didn't look like night at all; the sky had gotten dark and the Moon had risen, but the only change in activity below me was that bright lights had come on. The ships continued to fly around above tall buildings as well as skyscrapers. And to think that just outside the enormous walls were hordes Fallen waiting for the time to strike.

"Yeah, that city never sleeps," a voice said behind me.

I turned to see Marshall Lee in a T-shirt advertising some company by the name of SUROS and some cargo shorts, a far cry from the Warlock armor that I currently wore. I shook his hand and looked him over momentarily just as he did with me.

"I see that you still have that brace on your leg," I said.

"Yeah, that's why I'm a bit underdressed for a Guardian. The docs told me that I should limit physical activity severely to prevent any further damage, but they did recommend that I walk around ironically. Something about keeping the strength in my back and knee," Lee said with a slight limp as he joined me in leaning over the rail. "I see that you have some new threads."

"Oh, yeah. Apparently Awoken blood stains pretty badly, so Ikora gave me a pass to go to the outfitter and got some new armor."

The armor wasn't too heavy (thickness wise), but I'm pretty sure it would get the job done. Once again, the armor was mostly a durable cloth with a decent amount of armor beneath it. Covering it was a blue robe type thing that zipped diagonally (right to left) with the outline of a semi-circle in yellow that extended from the top of the zipper to about the middle. Rounded shoulder pauldrons gave way to black armor on the arms that led to a rectangular panel on the left that rose above the armor slightly. The panel dipped on the inside that created a ridge on the outside. Supposedly, the panel would connect to my ship and summon it (thus making the button contraption obsolete). There was also a belt with pockets of varying sizes that I had organized into each ammunition type that I carried along with the Glimmer I've earned and the Vanguard marks Ikora gave me at the same time as the clothing pass.

I also got a new hand cannon as the blood from the Baroness had caked the inside of the barrel and clogged it permanently. The new gun was a blue color and carried the name of Maverick Mark 36. It carried a six shot clip and shot much faster than the Duke. The Iridium-cored bullets took on more kinetic energy and impacted the target much harder and faster. This created a greater chance of the shot actually passing clean through the likely dead enemy and careening into a second. I acutally had it holstered while I was talking to him

"Any news on Arla?" I asked, returning from thought.

"She's healing quickly, but she's supposed to stay for a little while longer." We stood in silence for a while just staring at the city.

"Any assignment fromt the Vanguard?"

"None as of yet. I think we're supposed to return to Earth when Arla is healed, but that won't be for about a week. My back and legs should be ok by then as well."

"Good to hear," I said.

"Well…" Lee said with a yawn. "I think I'm turning in for tonight. It's almost 10:30."

"Good night then," I responded flatly. I still had many questions about what all was going on, but they had to wait. At that point, Lee started to hobble away grunting every five steps or so.

l walked back to my own quarters not long after. When I stepped through the door, a fist connected with my face plate. A practically inaudible grunt echoed from my assailant but didn't stop him/her from landing a flurry of kicks on my torso and knocking me onto the bed. In the dark room, I could only see glowing green eyes with a pupil as black as the room around us. I also saw the glint of a knife appear in what I believed was the assailant's hand.

He (I presumed) lunged forward with the knife. Based on the glint, I predicted where the arm was and grabbed it with success with both of my hands. The strength behind the knife matched even what I had. I could see the blade coming ever closer to my face plate. As a last resort, I twisted the arm until I heard the knife drop to the ground. I then made a sweep kick from the floor with my right foot and pinned my assailant as he lay on the floor.

He pushed me off and picked up the knife once again. He blocked one of my punches, and I blocked a counter-attacking kick to the chest. I made a blind kick and hit something. I presumed it was a hand as the knife clattered to the floor.

Frankly, I was done with this fight. I pulled out the Maverick and fired a shot as a warning. "Lights!" I yelled immediately after. The lights in the room turned on revealing an Awoken with light blue skin and blond buzzed hair. He was not dressed like any Guardian that I had recognized, but he could still be one as Lee was underdressed as well. The assailant wore dark colored cloth that covered almost all of his body except for his eyes.

Out of frustration at him trying to kill me, I backhanded him with the hand cannon and tied his hands with a pillowcase from the bed. I grabbed the knife from the floor and stuck it in one of the pockets. I also picked up my "prisoner" (per say) and carried him over my shoulder to the Vanguard.

I didn't get so far as the main plaza when I saw at least 20 Guardians in full gear, helmets and all, brandishing weapons of varying types as I stepped off. Immediately, they took the assailant from my shoulder and put him in proper handcuffs. Afterwards, helmets were taken off, and weapons holstered except for a few of them who came towards me and escorted not only myself but the prisoner (who had just woke up dazed and confused) too. They marched us to the Vanguard who all had a tired expression on their faces as if they were just woken up from sleep. Ikora Rey had the most obvious evidence with dark bags under her eyes as well as wrinkles on her robes.

They cut right to the chase. "Where'd you find this man? We've been hunting him all over the Tower and he winds up in your hands, literally," Ikora said very seriously and wide awake despite her appearance.

"Uh, first can I ask who he is?" I asked.

"No," Cayde-6 replied.

"Fine. I found him in my quarters. I was simply walking into my room and he assaulted me with a knife…"

"Do you have the weapon?" Cayde interrupted.

"Yes, I grabbed it as I was taking him to you." I took the knife from my pocket and tossed it to him.

"Ah, yes. Well, it appears that this is my knife. I have no clue as to how he got it off my person, but let's just leave it at this man will be serving quite a bit of time in prison."

"Take him away," Commander Zavala nodded. The three Guardians who had escorted us saluted and then grabbed the Awoken prisoner by his arms with one holding him at gunpoint.

"As for you Guardian, you are dismissed," Ikora said flatly.

I gave a similar salute (hand flat just over the eye to a raised fist about mouth level), spun 180 degrees and walked out. However, I didn't walk back to my room; I walked to the infirmary to check on Arla.

I walked into the sterilized room and saw her lying on the bed with no machines attached aside from the one managing her heart rate and blood pressure. Her green skin seemed a bit fuller than it did in the field. Cloth bandages wrapped around a very large portion of her torso, extending all the way up to her shoulder on her left side.

Arla noticed that I was standing in the doorway and sat up. "You shouldn't have done that those few days ago," she said in an accusative tone.

'Gosh this honor thing was true,' I thought. "I was just doing my job. You are a part of the same fireteam as Lee and I…"

"I DON'T CARE!" she screamed. "We Awoken carry a certain honor with us, and your display tainted it. Stargazer didn't help."

"But you said thank you to her," I retorted.

"Again. I don't care!"

"I saw your eyes when you opened them momentarily. You were scared; you feared for your life, and I can guarantee that you wanted to continue your work as a Guardian rather than not," I argued.

She remained quiet for some time. She spoke a good 10 minutes later; by then, I had taken a seat. "You're right," she began with a twinge of melancholy. "I was scared, and I truly am thankful that you helped me, but I hope that the Queen does not see it as weakness on my part. That Vandal stalked me and once I lost track of him…" the Awoken Huntress trailed off.

"I'm sure that she's fine with you getting help. No assassin will come for your head just because an Exo attempted to stem the bleeding. Although, I will say that you caused me to get a new set of armor which isn't necessarily a bad thing."

"I both apologize and congratulate you. Now help me out of this bed; there's no honor in staying immobilized in an infirmary. The darkness grows stronger every moment we lay inactive." She started to get up from the bed. She placed a two feet on the floor and started to stand. Arla took a few steps forward and then fell. She picked herself up off the floor and grabbed the doorway.

"I don't think this is a good idea," I warned. "You're still weak."

"How many times must I say that I don't give a crap. Now, help your teammate out and get to my quarters."

I sighed. I allowed her to throw her right arm around me and put a great deal of her weight on my shoulders.

We arrived at her room without a hitch. I helped her into her bed and bid her a farewell until the morning. I checked the clock on the panel. It read 3:26 a.m. There was enough time to power down for a little bit, but I'm not sure for how long. I've heard that the House of Wolves has indeed tried to avenge their Baroness' death. The Titans have reported increased activity and numbers including 6 Walkers near the West Wall. About 30 fireteams (three Guardians apiece) have been dispatched to the area.

A voice interrupted by thoughts. "Hey," it said. I turned around to see Arla leaning on the side of her door. The white bandages still slightly blood-stained. "Despite my objections earlier, I want to thank you." I walked her way and noticed a large gun in her right hand. I noticed she was leaning with her right shoulder while keeping that gun in her hand. It was a reddish-orange color with a long barrel. The weapon was freshly shined and looked practically brand new.

She saw me eyeing the weapon. She gave a harsh sigh. "Yes, this is what I'm giving you. Don't be chivalrous and just take it. I have no use for another sniper rifle. It's got 3 shots in a clip, arc based ammunition, as well as rounds that explode on impact. Enjoy and good night." Arla handed me the rifle and hobbled back in the room. Just as I was turning to leave, her head popped back from around the corner with only a momentary grimace from the strain it placed on her torso. "You'll have to see the Gunsmith about ammunition I only had the one clip for the gun, but don't mention this to ANYONE or I may have a bullet or two with your name on it," she warned in with a lot of seriousness.

Arla then disappeared behind and closed the door leaving me with a weapon in my hand and nobody else in the hallway. I just went back to my room to shut down for a couple hours.

Only a few hours later, the raid alarms sounded.


	7. Repulsion

Chapter 7

Repulsion

I re-activated to the sound of blaring raid sirens and metal boots rushing across a metal floor. My Ghost hovered not too far from the bed over three green boxes with light blue on the edges. As I glanced at them, I understood them to be Sniper Rifle clips with Arc ammunition designed to adjust round size according to the weapon they were inserted into.

I grabbed the silver metal ring with a green insignia on it and slid it over my left arm just above the elbow joints. The insignia grew brighter momentarily and then my armor began to seemingly ppear out of thin air with the leading line being a bright blue. In only a few seconds, my armor was covering me completely minus the helmet which was in my left hand.

It was designed to what I was used to. It had a black T-shaped area in the facial are with a slight bulge on the top of the T and it being slightly larger than normal. Eva Levante, the Guardian Outfitter, called it a Unity Clade design mostly due to the sections on the helmet that jutted out from the main body and raised stripes that would cross its valley in the front.

I walked over to the nightstand and grabbed the blue Maverick hand cannon and holstered it. I also grabbed Civilian Applications, the new sniper rifle, and settled its weight in my hands; it was heavier than the hand cannon by far but felt a lot more comfortable in my hands. It had a small scope that zoomed to about 5 times than what the helmet-assisted eye could see. I took out the clip and pulled out one of the rounds. It was rather large, spanning almost all of my palm and came to a sharp point. The round itself was also rather thick, and the magazine could only fit 3 of them until it couldn't support any more. This wouldn't help in tough situations, but it seemed to be an excellent sniper rifle. I placed the bullet back in the magazine and placed the magazine back in the gun, making sure that I pulled back the bolt and allowed it to come forward again. I clipped it into place and made sure it was secure.

My Ghost disappeared into my suit's systems and I exited the room into the rush of people in the hallway. Noticing most of the other Guardians were either helmeted or in the process of putting said armor piece on, I slipped mine over my head. The HUD came on instantly, much quicker than my old armor. The shield meter was full, the weapon indicators and ammo counters synched up to my supply, and the grenade charge started. My Ghost established a comms link with Lee and Arla also as soon as the systems declared that they were ready.

A voice that I recognized as Commander Zavala's came over the comms system as an override. "Guardians, we have a situation in the City. Titan patrols have reported that the Fallen they have been monitoring have opened fire not only against teams outside of the walls, but the Walkers have begun firing on the wall itself. So far, the damage is only cosmetic, but it won't be that way forever. There are transport shuttles waiting for dispatching. Each can hold 2 fire teams and we are dispatching 8 to the combat zone and 10 to the City for general peacekeeping. Your Ghost's will have details on your dispatch momentarily."

"Lee? Arla? You there?" I asked over the fireteam chat. A male and female yes came over the system confirming.

"Wait a minute," Lee said. "Arla, shouldn't you be in the infirmary?"

Arla responded in an almost indignant tone, "There's no use in lying in a bed doing nothing. I'm fine."

"What are your positions?" I asked.

"I'm in the center transport ship waiting for you. We've been tasked with pushing back the Fallen and taking out the two lead Walkers along with a Titan patrol squad and another fireteam," Lee responded.

"Confirmed. I'll set my heading to there," Arla said with finality.

"On my way," I confirmed as well.

I took the lift immediately to my right along with two other Guardians. The lift groaned from the combined weight but moved smoothly. Once the doors opened up, I sprinted into the central transport, knocking down a hunter and another warlock in the process, and took a seat behind the other fireteam with the Ex-Marshall and Arla. I saw that he too had some new armor. It seemed thicker than before and it was a gray color from head to toe. The helmet was still all encompassing but was smoother on the front with more textured parts on the sides and back.

Arla wore form-fitting armor of medium thickness. It was a silver chestplate with black leg armor and armored sleeves and gauntlets that shared the same coloration (silver to the elbow and black below that). Her helmet was mostly covered by a black cloak but what part I could see was white with what looked to be some sort of visor that jutted out over the eye area with small rectangular slits approximately where her eyes would be.

The doors closed, and I felt the transport accelerate from the Tower and we were off. The white lights remained on in the ship but blast screens were over the windows in the case of any Fallen Skiff fire or any other Anti-Air threat.

A few minutes later, the pilot came over the in-ship speakers, "All right were over the drop zone: About 30 feet above the wall. It's mostly small arms fire from the Fallen right now but I'd not risk much in terms of heroics in the air."

"Here we go," Lee said, extending a fist. Both Arla and I bumped it with our own. We all stood up in unison and drew our weapons. We all took out sniper rifles to each of our own surprises. I had Civilian Applications, Arla pulled out a black rifle, and Lee pulled out a bright red rifle with some sort of triangle logo on it.

"I guess we'll be sniping from the Wall then," I said.

The pilot said something that I couldn't hear, but I understood it as soon as the door opened. The other fireteam jumped out first. It consisted of two Titans and a Hunter all in orange and black armor. We followed not soon after.

The next few seconds as we fell were so much of a blur. When the transport was clear of my view, I saw at least 20 Fallen ships of varying sizes in the sky firing at the transports. Our transport blew up over our head almost immediately after dropping us off. Just as many Walkers were visible even from this far off the ground and fired at the dropping Guardians, transports, and some focused on busting a hole in the indented wall. One of the targeted heavy shots directly hit one of the Titans that was falling about 5 feet below me. Nothing was left of him besides a cloud of red that dissipated almost instantly. The blast knocked both of his comrades off of their intended course. Another shot exploded in the face of the Hunter (and I presumed blinded him as he did not see the ground below the Wall until it was too late), and the remaining Titan was knocked entirely off course and landed in the middle of a group of 15 Fallen. He only lasted a couple of seconds after his landing; his Ghost did not last much longer. That left 6 fireteams besides my own to deal with all of these Fallen.

Despite the drama as we went down, Lee, Arla, and I all landed safely. The Wall was several feet thick and looked very sturdy, but the growing indentation caused by the Walkers' fire seemed to compromise the integrity.

The floor of the Wall was indented in the middle with a 4 foot rise on each edge that would allow for cover. Using the Glide function momentarily, I observed the battlefield. There were several hundred, if not a couple thousand, Fallen infantry of varying types along with the 20 Walkers. Most of them seemed to have blue armor indicating their origin to be of the House of Wolves, likely avenging their fallen Baroness, but the golden colors of other troops my HUD identified as the House of Kings also decorated the battlefield every now and again.

A large line of Titans was firing just in front of the wall. By now, most of the dispatched fireteams had made it onto the Wall to provide covering fire, though I only counted a total of 6 (including my own) with two of the fireteams consisting of only one Guardian. There were heavy losses and the general morale was indiscernible.

I now settled behind the rising part of the wall along with Arla and Lee and began to cover the Titan teams below. We were careful with our shots as ammunition was limited for sniper rifles. Within the first hour of our arrival, three of the Walkers had been destroyed and about 200 Fallen lay dead. Shouts for ammo of the special variety began to echo across the wall. Those calls went generally unanswered. I ignored them, but I did check my ammunition counter. I had two shots in this magazine left with 18 other shots on backup. I had exhausted over half of my reserve! "Ok," I called over my fireteam chat. "We need to conserve ammunition otherwise we're going to have to drop to the assault teams below."

Two answers of "Got it," came from two different voices over the channel. I refocused my efforts. I took aim at a Wolf Vandal with three other Dregs close to him. I squeezed the trigger and scored a headshot without him ever knowing what killed him. The subsequent explosion from the explosive ammunition killed one of the Dregs and severely maimed the other two. One lost its arms on the left side, and the other lost a leg. Both would bleed out in a minute or two.

Off to the left of that action, I saw that a Walker had lost the armor to one of its legs and had fallen over, exposing its extremely volatile and vulnerable core. I took a steady aim at the part and fired. The shot hit true and explosions rocked throughout the body of the blue Wolf Walker. It released several blue mines as it fell dead, causing the deaths of several dozen Fallen around it as well as two other Walkers that exploded spectacularly.

A general cheer resounded throughout the public chat as it caused its carnage, but the job was far from over. Commander Zavala came over the comms about a half hour (and three Walkers) later.

"Guardians," he began. "The enemy is at a breaking point before pulling out. At least, that's what it seems. By our reconnaissance, we have estimated just over 800 dead Fallen from a total of four houses, mostly from the House of Wolves and House of Kings. They have also lost 16 Skiffs and other ships and 13 Walkers." Cheers once again resounded throughout the radio. "_However_, we have lost well over 400 Guardians. 7 out of the 8 support fireteams have sustained at least one loss and 5 of them are completely wiped out. Three-quarters of the Titan taskforces have either been wounded or KIA without hope of revival." Zavala paused for a moment before continuing. "The Fallen have become aware of the Ghosts' ability to revive its fallen Guardian which is why we strongly recommend treating this as if there is no possibility. I have dispatched three additional teams to the Wall. One last order, Guardian Fireteam Beta 8 please leave your support role and join the assault forces below." The Titan Vanguard cut the transmission at that point.

"Sounds like that's us," Arla said firing to more shots at the Fallen.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We're the only full fireteam left. We should stay here and continue support," Lee argued.

"They're sending more, now come on!" I yelled as I jumped. I heard Lee protest, and Arla sigh, "And he HAD to be an Exo. They have nothing to lose; only mindless robots…"

"I heard that Arla. We are quite sentient and capable of thought. I was a…" I activated Glide for a moment and hit the ground. "...soldier in the Allied Earth Army, defending the cosmodrome that now lies in ruins. Of course, it was pretty bombed out when we got there." I heard two thumps in close proximity which told me that Lee and Arla had descended from the Wall. I drew my hand cannon and took out two Vandals with four rapid shots.

"So you failed then," Arla said.

"Little hard to do when the odds are pretty much stacked in their favor. Think this Fallen force at the beginning of the battle against only a few hundred sleep-deprived and demoralized soldiers in comparatively light armor. That, and it's a little hard to defend the evacuation of thousands when you're dead." Suddenly, a Dreg fired from my left. The shields absorbed the hits well, only decreasing slightly, but the two shots I fired at the enemy were too much for his lightly armored being to absorb. I slammed in a new cartridge.

"So then how are you…" Lee trailed off as his gunshots were barely picked up by his helmet's mike.

"The revival was due to my Ghost finding what likely little remained of me in a lot outside that cosmodrome," I replied firing off several more shots into a Dreg and Vandal in front of me.

"I don't think there has ever been a Guardian assimilated into the ranks that way," Arla replied. There was an audible click that signaled someone had switched to the general comms for the group. Various voices immediately filled the speakers, but Arla's stuck out amongst all of the others. "INCOMING cannon blast! 3 to wall, 1 to G Targets." She also pointed as she said it.

As I quickly followed the finger, four of the now 7 remaining Walkers were pointing a red laser and a gathering orb of energy was gathering on what I presumed was a main cannon of some sort. 3 of the lasers were aimed at the Wall's growing indentation, but the fourth was pointed towards a group of 40 or so Guardians, mostly Titans.

A salvo of rockets was fired from somewhere on the wall. Most of them were directed towards the ones firing at the wall, but a few of them struck the one directly ahead of me aiming at the group of Titans. Two of the Walkers stumbled a bit on their six legs and fell over. There were two problems with those events though: Two of those shots at the Wall hit their mark and crumbled a part of it (devoid of Guardians), but the tank aimed at the Titans now directly aimed at me. It had only lost two legs on the left side and was immobilized rather than destroyed.

I took a few steps back as I observed the reddish-orange energy ball flying straight in my direction. I jumped just in time for the blast to strike below me.

\- I felt myself flying through the air helpless. My HUD indicated that I had lost the Maverick by removing its ammo counter. My shields were gone but only a small sliver of the protection my armor would offer was actually gone. Only a few seconds later, I hit the ground with tremendous force. I lay limp just staring at the miniscule piece of the bar showing the integrity of my armor. Several seconds passed that felt like hours. Gunfire shot over what I could see, but I remained motionless instead of taking cover. My armor integrity recovered, and the shield was steadily recovering.

Suddenly, a green and gold armored hand waved in front of the view screen. "Hey," a metallic voice said above the sounds of gunfire. I said nothing. "Come on buddy," the voice said as he pulled me up against something solid, the Wall. "Oh, I know what happened. Hold on a second." I then realized that this Guardian was a Titan judging by his thick armor and helmet similarly styled to the Marshall's. He kneeled over me and everything went dark inside my helmet. There was a hiss of released pressure and light flooded into my view. The Titan then placed my now-removed helmet next to me.

"So that's why you were slightly heavier than what I'm accustomed to," the Titan said with a surprised tone. "First time in the suit that the power's gone down?"

"Yeah," I said sitting up a little more on the Wall.

"Doesn't matter…" A large blast drowned out what he said momentarily and caused him to cover a part of his helmet. The Titan continued, "...how good the armor gets. It always freaks out the first time it hits the red."

"Hmm...Does that happen with new sets of armor or whenever a new piece is equipped for the first time?" I asked.

"Only with new complete sets. New pieces of individual armor usually don't have that occur," his demeanor suddenly changed. "Where's your weapon? We should probably get back to fighting."

"Yeah, that's the problem. I seem to have dropped it," I said as I stood up and put my helmet on. "Ghost, can you or the suit detect dropped weapons?"

"Not quite," he replied inside the helmet.

"What about Light signatures? I heard that Guardian suits produce Light signatures that can be tracked."

"That I can track. What are we looking for?"

"My weapon. The Maverick." There was silence for several seconds, the only sounds were cries of pain and the booms of cannon fire and other arms. During this time, the helmet showed some sort of scanning wave along with the normal line of sight.

"Got it," Ghost said. "50 meters ahead. I suggest throwing in a grenade and running like death's behind you."

"But it's in front of me," I retorted.

"Can we do this later?" Ghost pleaded in his robotic voice.

I just sighed. Suddenly, the Titan spoke up. "So what are you going to do?"

I opened my left hand and clamped down on something hard. "Give me cover fire. I'm going to get my weapon."

"You got it," he said. I walked forward a few steps but turned around when I heard the Titan speak above the sounds of the battle. "Hey Warlock. The name's Hendricks. Roald Hendricks."

"Maximus," I responded.

"Good to meet ya. Now, lets dispose of these scavengers."

I nodded and broke into a sprint when I saw him shooting a black and white Pulse Rifle. I tossed the grenade about ten feet ahead of me at the feet of three Fallen, two Vandals and a Dreg. I activated Glide and flew over the damaging orb of energy. In mid-air, I equipped my Sniper Rifle and fired two shots at a nearby Captain. One hit the head and disabled the shields as well as caused a significant amount of damage; the second shot hit just above the waist and toppled it.

By the time I landed, I was halfway to my target which was highlighted by a white marker in the center of my HUD. I continued in full sprint as Fallen units began taking fire to my left and right. I suddenly caught the glint of my weapon right in front of me. I shifted my route to the left only a few inches and did a slide similar to the players of an ancient sport most called baseball. The slide was just at the correct angle as I grabbed my hand cannon and emptied the rest of the cartridge into the eyeball shaped Servitor in front of me.

I shoved a new cartridge in the weapon and gave a quick survey of the area. The four remaining Walkers still stood tall, but one was severely damaged while the two of the others had moderate damage to the body and legs, and the final Walker had sustained almost no damage at all. It was hanging back mostly away from the brunt of the fighting. I jumped and activated Glide and took a larger look at the battlefield.

There were now many more dead Fallen than there were living. I would go so far as to estimate approximately 150-200 Fallen remained of the couple thousand that there had been, I looked at the time, five hours ago. I wasn't sure how many Guardians remained, but I got the feeling that many had also been lost. I could see about 6 or 7 silhouetted figures atop the Wall which had sustained a very significant amount of damage.

When I landed, I killed several more Fallen but realized something: Despite the insurmountable number of casualties on their side, the Fallen were not going to quit as long as those Walkers could still fire upon the Wall and possibly punch a hole in it. This group may have known that they would not be able to invade the City, but should there be a hole in the Wall, the City would be vulnerable, and a different team could get in.

I had an idea. It was risky, especially to myself, but it might just get rid of the Walkers. "Ghost, contact the Warlock Vanguard," I said.

"Why? I'm pretty sure they won't answer without good reason."

"I have an idea on how to end this," I said as I focused on cutting down as many Fallen as possible with the now-dwindling amount of ammunition I had for the Maverick.

I only heard the general comms for several minutes then suddenly, all of that faded away, and Ikora's face occupied a space on the right side of my HUD. It was a bit distracting in the current situation, but I should be ok.

"Alright, alright. What is it Maximus?" the Warlock Vanguard said with slight annoyance in her tone.

"I think I have an idea on how to end this with minimal further damage to the Wall," I said. I saw her eyes grow just a bit larger in the connection.

"I'm listening," was all she said.

"I need you to order an all-charge for the forces in front of the Wall as well as suppressing fire from those on top of the Wall. I'll make my way over to the heavily damaged Walker on the right and climb on top. As I'm moving, I'll gain the attention of all of the main cannons on the other Walkers. They will all fire at me on top of the right Walker and take each other out in the process…"

"And invoke the Fallen Friendly Fire code in the process," Ikora interrupted.

"What is that exactly?"

"We've observed it in numerous engagements. If a Fallen unit shoots and kills another Fallen unit, then it's essentially open season on his head. So that'll leave just the one in the back taking out the one of the left. There's only one problem. Any Guardian that falls in this charge will likely have died from the chin-mounted plasma gun on the Walkers. The reason the Titans and others haven't moved up all that much was because they are just out of range of said gun," Ikora then warned, "If your plan fails, you will personally explain to the families that you lead them to their doom granted the Fallen leave them alive."

"I predict that the remaining Fallen infantry will fall back to defend the remaining Walker. While they focus on retreating, I need a rocket volley from everyone that has a rocket to fire."

"This might just work, but remember my warning. I'll relay this to Zavala. If he accepts the plan, he'll relay the charge order over the general comms, and give you a code word for the volley of rockets. Hang tight."

With that, Ikora's face disappeared from the HUD and the sounds of the general comms returned. While firing at the dwindling numbers of Fallen, I contacted Arla and Marshall Lee and relayed the plan as well as Ikora's response. They seemed accepting of the plan. Lee added the comment, "Finally, I can use this thing!" Apparently, he had retrieved a rocket launcher called Valedictorian 9-44 from a fallen Guardian who would never get up.

-"Guardians," Zavala announced over the radio almost 15 minutes later. By now, the Fallen numbers were around 50 or 60 remaining, a far cry from their original power of numbers nearly 6 hours before. "We have a plan to end this conflict. When my voice cuts off, I'm ordering an all-charge against the Fallen and their Walkers. Try and stay clear of the main cannons and be prepared to fire all the rockets you have at the Walkers when you hear the word 'Omni quippe igni.' I trust that the nobody says this who is not authorized. Should someone do so, then you will face court martial with all of the Vanguard and possible demotion." Commander Zavala stopped talking and the Guardians on the ground charged.

I sprinted across the battlefield just behind the charging line of Guardians. over to the extremely weakened Walker on the right. Despite being in the back of the line, I saw Guardians getting mowed down by the plasma gun. Some of them were revived by other Guardians while others were not as fortunate.

Without it knowing, I jumped on top of the heavily damaged Walker and shot at all of the others in the front line. Two red lines appeared just below my feet, unable to go any higher. They fired anyways. I jumped and activated Glide just before the center Walker destroyed the one I was once on. The left cannon's shot destroyed the center. The Walker went soaring into the air and fell several hundred meters away from where it originally stood. The back Walker saw the "friendly fire" and activated the code, obliterating the "offender."

"OMNI QUIPPE IGNI!" I yelled as I flew in the air. I saw several dozen bright streaks with smoke trails explode in a brilliant flash of light with a brightness comparable to that of the Sun. I only knew it was over was when everything suddenly went black.

\- I thought that the blackness was caused by the impact, but it turned out that I had landed on my face and had not moved in those few moments that had passed. I turned my head and saw my armored left hand, palm flat against the ground. I moved the fingers and formed a fist just to make sure the arm was still attached and worked. I flexed my right hand and accidentally fired off a shot from the Maverick. I stood up and dusted myself off. The cloak was dusty but not burned. in the slightest despite the flames and other hot debris that touched it. The chest armor had a few blast marks in it but also had retained its integrity.

I stood up and looked around. Where the last Walker had once stood lay only a few smoldering scraps of red hot metal. Just as I had predicted, the remaining Fallen units were either killed by the enormous blast or had retreated. I saw Arla and Lee not far off. I holstered the Maverick and walked over to them. Both of them had taken off their helmets. I took mine off as well and threw it to the side, watching it disappear as the Ghost took it into the inventory. It also appeared just above my shoulder. Ghost said nothing, likely having detected how low my energy levels were getting from the limited rest before the battle as well as the battle itself.

Lee's semi-long brown hair was matted down and the bags underneath his eyes showed his exhaustion but his brown eyes showed a feeling of relief. Sweat was literally dripping off his lightly tanned face. Several black marks decorated his chest armor from when he had absorbed energy shots and the like.

Arla also had clear sweat dripping off of her green skin and the brown hair that I assumed was usually shoulder-length (as indicated by a few semi-straight strands that hovered just above her shoulder) was likewise matted down with sweat. The cape that was attached to her hood showed several holes of varying sizes from where she too had taken a few shots either from behind or ones that had missed her but not the cape flowing behind her.

When I approached, we said nothing. We all nodded that we were alright and proceeded to the waiting transport. It was the last one there and was empty when we climbed aboard. The seats were just 8 foot benches with pads on them, but for all we cared, they could have been bedrock. We were all just glad for the chance to rest for the moment. Even an Exo like myself.

I took a seat near the cockpit and Lee took a seat in the middle of the opposite bench. He laid out and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly despite the slightly awkward angle his head was at due to the thick armor. Arla sat on the same bench as I did about two feet away. I took off the gauntlets at the wrist and set them beside me, letting my seemingly metal, skeleton-like hands be freed from the armored and slightly bulky glove.

The transport lifted off and almost immediately after it leveled off, Arla let out a muffled grunt and toppled over onto me. I looked over saw a small chink in her armor in her left side. A dark purple liquid was oozing out slowly but steadily. Immediately recognizing what it was, "LEE! WAKE UP! WE HAVE A SITUATION! ARLA'S REOPENED HER WOUNDS!"

He shot up and ran over despite the grogginess of waking up just as sleep was about to take him. He saw the wound immediately and wordlessly started to apply pressure after I gently set her down. I put the gauntlets back on and banged loudly on the pilot's door.

The co-pilot slid the door back and calmly said, "What's all the hubbub abou...HOLY CRAP! Jennings, full burn! We have a wounded Guardian. I'll radio the Tower!" The door slammed shut, and I could feel the transport ship burst forward with increased acceleration.


	8. Aftermath

Chapter 8

Aftermath

"The Battle for the City" the Cryptarchs began calling it. By far, it was the bloodiest one-day battle of what they were calling the Vanguard Counter-Offensive. The official count of troops deployed showed that 2160 Fallen infantry units were deployed along with 25 Walkers (5 were destroyed before my involvement) meanwhile 351 Guardians were dispatched in 117 three-G fireteams. Of those deployed, there were 1800 Fallen bodies present not counting those that had died via energy streams from Fusion Rifles, grenades, and other energy-centered weapons that essentially turned their targets into a wispy outline and disappear shortly thereafter. 97 Guardians fell and never returned as their Ghosts were destroyed as well. 200 Guardians (not counting the forever deceased) reported being downed at one point or another during the battle as well.

A very large portion of the damaged part of the Wall had to be torn down and rebuilt. Two dozen Guardians were to be posted at the opening at any given time over the next three months. These assigned troops would be rotated out as individual fireteams to swap out with the other after 8 hour shifts.

I powered back online around 7 a.m. back in my room. I sat up in my bed and stared at the green wall and insignia made of yellow triangles. I now understood it as the mark of the Warlocks and my current personal emblem. Lee said that I could change this by purchasing an emblem from the Outfitter, but that could come later. I had a shift at the Wall in 2 hours and had quite a bit of errands, per say, to do beforehand. I stood up on the left side of the bed and grabbed the silver metal ring (called a bond) and slid it up my left arm, allowing the armor to reappear from the Ghost's inventory and cover me. As is usual, the helmet stayed in the inventory until I needed. For the errands, I wouldn't need it so I began to walk towards the door.

"Wait a minute," the voice of my Ghost said behind me. "We need to take care of something before you set out any farther."

I turned around. "What would that be? Make it quick, you of all things should know that we have a shift at the Wall in two hours and things to get before that happens," I said harshly.

"It's just that. The harshness that we've shown each other ever since I revived you in the cosmodrome. It's been a little over a week and little progress has been made in terms of our working relationship. I don't mean this to sound rude, but I'm the only Ghost you'll ever have. If I am destroyed, you are as well, so I believe that we need to fix this right now."

"And how would we do that?" I said sarcastically while stepping on the hidden pressure plate to open the door to the hall. Just as I made a step, it slammed in my face and almost on my boot.

"I think that in order for our relationship to grow we should have a more personal charm with one another, so sit." Ghost said. I pulled up a chair from beneath the desk in the room and sat in it. I sat slightly hunched over with my elbows touching my knees and the forearms hanging freely below almost touching at the hands. Suddenly, an unexpected weight fell on my hands, nearly taking me out of the seat.

I looked down and saw my helmet in my hands. "What is this for? There's no battle here."

"Just put it on, " Ghost ordered. I pulled it over my head, but the normal HUD did not appear; in fact, nothing did. My Ghost floated over in front of the helmet and faced it with its light blue "eye" facing dead center. The helmet scanned it and immediately became a white screen that replaced the view of everything around me. I squirmed in the chair to make sure I was still seated, and figured out that I was. This was just something put on by the suit.

Suddenly, a line of black text appeared in the top center of the helmet. "_Welcome to the Ghost Customization._" I didn't immediately realize what he meant by a "personal charm" earlier, but now I understood it. Just as Lee had said, Ghosts could transform when they wanted to and if they so decided, you could change their color scheme*. The text faded away and was replaced by a microphone shaped icon. More text centered itself on the top of the screen. "_Please say the new name of your Ghost. Please note that this cannot be changed again." _The last phrase was in small print just underneath the first line.

I thought for a moment, taken slightly off guard. I then settled on the name "Starco" for no apparent reason other than to give it a name. It accessed a registry and put the name in the database successfully after making sure there were no duplicates.

A moment later, a new screen popped up showing various colors and shapes as well as a layer count numbering to 50. A new line of text showed: "_Please design your Ghost however you may like. This can be done over at a later time should you change your mind._"

I colored the entire shell black and put white dots on random places over the original black coating, giving him (I guessed) the illusion of the night sky. When the system noticed my pause, it assumed I was finished and the white screen faded away, returning the normal HUD that popped up this time.

I took off the helmet and stared at the Ghost, now named Starco, with his shining black layer and white dots. Aside from the light blue eye and dim reflection of the room at certain angles, Starco actually looked like the night sky. "Happy?" I asked.

"Much better. Alright let's get these tasks underway," Starco responded. I left the room and took the lift to the central plaza of the Tower. I casually made my way over to Banshee to obtain more boxes of ammunition for my weaponry.

"How are you doing Maximus?" he said as I approached.

"Not bad. A little low on munitions though. You still got any hand cannon capsules and sniper rounds?"

"You got it." He reached down and and placed 6 boxes on the cluttered counter in front of him. 4 boxes of capsules and 2 boxes of three magazines per box. "That'll be 1200 Glimmer," Banshee said flatly. Starco spawned in the money from the inventory, and I unloaded the boxes into their respective pockets. I started to walk away when he spoke once again.

"Wait up a second," I turned around. "I heard that Ikora was looking for you in the Vanguard room. You may want to head that way."

"Got it," I responded. I walked to the stairs and made my way to the wide hallway. I turned the corner to take the second set of stairs and ran into someone rushing up the stairs. I instinctively grabbed the hand of the person I bumped into. I immediately recognized who it was.

"Excuse me Ikora…" I said.

"It's no problem," she responded cooly. "I actually have a couple of things for you. The first is an apology for the harshness I showed you during the battle. My only excuse is that it _was_ the Wall the Fallen were attacking, and all of the Vanguard were under a lot of stress. For all that, I am extremely sorry."

"Don't mention it. I completely understand that sort of thing. You forget that I was a soldier all those years ago, so I'm used to harsh attitudes from my superiors," I responded sincerely.

"Well, as a sort of consolation, I want to show you something that you could apply in combat."

"Right here?"

"It'll only take a moment," Ikora said assuredly. "Now, hold up your right fist so that the knuckles of the glove face me." I did so. "Now partially open your hand and allow that orb of light to form. Keep your hand steady and don't allow it to grow; at least, not yet.

I opened my hand so that from the side it would look similar to a "C." The orb appeared a second or two later and grew just a bit to the size of golf ball or thereabouts. Ikora did these exact movements with her own hand. She then stood beside me at the top of the stairs. "Now, throw the arm forward at a pretend enemy in front of you and expand your hand quickly, allowing the orb to expand rapidly." I did so and as I thrust out my arm, the orb lost stability and dissipated with a loud cracking sound when my arm was completely extended.

Ikora's followed and produced a similar sound. "Just like that," she said. "Now do that as quick as possible and you have a what we like to call a 'Warlock Melee' under your belt."

"Thanks," I said.

"One more thing before you leave for your shift. I actually have a physical gift for you to take with you into battle," the Vanguard turned to her Ghost nearby. "Evora, if you will. Maximus hold out your hands." The Ghost nodded and sent forth streams of light blue light on my hands.

A black and extremely heavy object dropped into my hands. It had a long cylinder at the right end which extended through to a wider end protruding from the larger body of the weapon. A trigger was attached to the bottom of the curved body of the weapon. It also had a red-tinted and rectangular scope with a circle in the middle that contained a smaller dot in its center. It looked like some sort of rocket launcher. It also had a sling attached that went the opposite direction of the sniper rifle's.

Ikora spoke, interrupting my thoughts, "That's a Void element rocket launcher by the name of 'Unfriendly Giant.' I haven't explored many of the modifications that the Gunsmith can help you apply but I'm pretty sure that they're pretty good. To load it: pull the top part back, a slanted cylinder will pop up. Put the explosive rocket round in there, slam the part down and slide that top piece back." She demonstrated.

Seemed easy enough. I slung the rocket launcher and crossed Civilian Applications. I never heard the metal on metal clang and found that the business end of the launcher actually stopped short of hitting the extended barrel of the rifle.

Ikora added, "The rounds come in pinkish-purple boxes like this one," she dug in one of the pockets of her cloak and produced one. She opened it and pulled out a rounded cylinder with a flat end no larger than a hand cannon capsule. It seemed a bit small for the large cylinder of the rocket launcher. She turned the object in her hand so that the flat end faced up in her fist. She touched the center of it and it suddenly grew to about the size of a fist in thickness and the length of her hands to her wrist. "Touch the center of the bottom of the round to grow its size to activate the round."

She tapped the center of the bottom again and it shrank back to its original size. She emptied the box into her hand, allowing two more of the objects to fall into her hand and handed them to me. I placed them in a pouch on the left side of my cloak next to the sniper magazines. "Thank you again, Ikora," I said.

"No problem Maximus. Now, go catch your transport." I left her and went to the hangar where I was supposed to meet the team.

I reached the Tower Hangar and took the stairwell to the bottom. I saw the black transport ship that would take the us to the Wall once again. It was the same one from a couple days ago but with newly installed seats due to Arla's hidden injury.

I climbed aboard and took a seat in the center of the left bench. Lee took a seat directly opposite me and high-fived me just before he sat down. Now, we awaited the last person in our team. Lee and I made casual conversation while we waited. After all, we still had 15 minutes before our official departure time.

"How have you been this last couple days Maximus?" Lee asked lightheartedly.

"I've been a little preoccupied with trying to recover my energy levels. I was using reserves apparently after the fight."

"I hear ya. Sleep isn't such a bad thing. I've been doing a lot of that too as well as getting in a little time on the firing range. Otherwise, I've just been milling about the Tower with no destination." We were silent for a moment. Then Lee spoke again, "Any news on Arla?"

"I didn't get to check today, but I predict that she's still in that medical stasis. The doctors said yesterday that they didn't want her moving around until the operations were finished and they could trust that she wouldn't escape again. I'll check back after our shift."

"Yeah, who helped her with that? I had a couple of buddies that were in the infirmary then from a training accident and said they saw someone helping her out."

I raised my hands as if surrendering. "Guilty as charged."

"_You_ did that?!" Marshall said with surprise.

"I was only doing what you told me to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked with curiosity.

"You said not to make her angry. I was going to refuse and tell her to rest, but then I recalled what you said about her attitude. Then she said something along the lines of 'no honor sitting in a bed while their were enemies to fight' or something like that," I explained.

Lee laughed. "Sounds like her. You took what I said a tad too literally, but she's not going anywhere this time." The Marshall then peeled a glove partially off and checked a watch that he apparently kept there. "It's 8:53. That replacement ought to get here soon or we'll all be hearing it from Zavala and the team we're replacing."

As if on cue, a heavily armored Awoken Titan in green and gold stepped into the transport and settled in next to Marshall Lee, setting his helmet beside him. Lee extended a hand and shook it. "Roald Hendricks," he said.

"Lee Thompson, but people really just refer to me as 'Marshall.'"

"Why's that?" Roald asked.

"I was a Marshall in the City when my Ghost found me. The title just stuck."

"Hmm." There was silence for a few minutes. Roald broke the silence. "How have you been since the battle Maximus?"

Before I could answer, Lee piped up, "Wait you two met before?"

"It's a long story," I responded. "To answer your question Roald, I've been ok. Just recharging the energy tanks and being abducted by my Ghost."

Lee and Roald looked very confused. "I was essentially forced to customize him when I got out of bed this morning," I clarified.

"I wouldn't say forced," Starco said rather indignantly as he appeared just in front of me. "You could've taken off the helmet."

"Alright," I said raising my hands in surrender.

"Not a bad design," Lee said. "It reminds me of the night sky from the Tower. What'd you call it?"

"You actually got what I designed him as. I called it Starco for obvious reasons; that and I couldn't think of another name."

Lee and Roald laughed at the last comment, and Starco disappeared.

Everybody grew silent for a moment as the transport shuttle lifted off and accelerated out of the hangar. I took the time to study Hendricks' features. He was clean shaven compared to Lee's stubble on his chin and cheeks. Hendricks was also bald with a pale blue stern-looking face betrayed by his personality. He reminded me of Commander Zavala in color, but the face was different and he wasn't completely bald, just shaved.

Lee spoke again, "So, uh, Roald right?" The green and gold Titan nodded. "Not to sound too judgemental, but that doesn't quite sound like an Awoken name. It sounds more human."

"You're not the first one to say that Lee," he said understandingly. "You could say I'm three-quarters Awoken. My mother was half Awoken but kept the skin color."

"Can't say I've ever heard of that mix," I said flatly. "You haven't taken too much flak for that have you?"

"Nah," Roald replied, brushing off the comment. "Aside from my family and previous fireteam and you guys, nobody else knows."

"If you don't mind my asking," Lee started. "Where is your fireteam? We're happy to have a fresh face while our comrade is in the infirmary, but I'm sure Maximus is curious as well."

I wasn't too concerned on the matter to be truthful. I just wanted to get this guard thing over with. Fireteams who have come back have reported that not much happens. Sometimes the stray Fallen comes out of the nearby forest, but that happens once every several hours. It seemed like more of a drag than a duty to the City.

"They're in the same place. The infirmary, I mean. One broke an arm and needed it casted. The other broke a femur in her left leg. I'll just be doing a lot of filling in for a few weeks while my teams heals. They say that the leg will take about 3 weeks to heal and a week of rehab. I'm pretty sure my time at the Wall isn't over after today."

"Neither ours," I said. "But who knows what the future holds."

"The murder of Fallen, that's what," said Marshall Lee. That brought a chuckle from Roald.

The transport stopped abruptly. Shortly after, the door opened up, revealing the partially. I walked to the edge of the ramp and looked down; we were much higher than previously. When I looked up, I realized that the shuttle was just under the flat stratus clouds that seemed to be dumping a light mist of rain over the area. A half mile section of the Wall was either in the process of being torn down or being rebuilt in various stages; the latest stage was just over three stories high. "I guess this is our stop," Starco said, reappearing.

"Guess so," I said.

Lee knocked on the pilot's door. The co-pilot opened it, and Lee practically yelled over the noise of the engines outside, "Why are we so high up? I thought we were going to land on the ground."

"Scout teams have reported two Fallen Walkers are nearby. They also suspect a Skiff judging by the burn marks of one that landed. I'm sorry, but you three will have to jump down and land using Glide or Lift or whatever you got. This came from Amanda, so I'm not about to question it."

Lee sighed and put on his helmet; Roald followed promptly. I suddenly felt the weight of my own helmet in my right hand and slipped it on over my head. Starco disappeared as the HUD came online.

I stepped into the middle of the aisle and went back to the pilot's door and turned to face the open rear of the shuttle. I broke into a sprint towards the open door and jumped , spreading my arms horizontally as I reached the height of my jump, and then threw them back inward and started my dive to the ground.

*This is not actually something from the game. I wish it was, but sadly it isn't. I think that Bungie should put in a way to get new Shells for the Ghosts or a way to design a shell for 5000 glimmer or something, making Glimmer actually do something other than buy weapons before the game ends as well as upgrades. Ok my small rant with Bungie is over.


	9. Recovery

Chapter 9

Recovery

Small drops of rain gathered on the visor of my helmet, quickly cleared away by a vertical line of light every couple of seconds. I rolled over, so I could look up. I observed my cloak whipping about as I fell as well as Lee and Roald falling spaced 20 feet from myself and the same distance for the other. I flipped back around and saw the finish of our descent approaching quickly.

As we descended, I saw a pair of Vandals emerging from the nearby forest. "Hey look, some friends," Lee said into the comms.

"I got 'em," I responded. Using my arms to control where I would land, I adjusted my trajectory so that I was where the head Vandal would be when I landed. The altimeter on the middle right of the screen showed my altitude was nearing 800 feet above the ground; I waited until I was at a height of 35 feet, maneuvered myself upright and activated Glide to slow my fall from terminal velocity to something that wouldn't impact the shields too much when I landed.

By now, the Vandals had noticed the three Guardians flying towards them, one much closer than the other. I formed a fist with my right hand and allowed gravity to put the power into the "punch." The targeted Vandal's armor gave way like a hot knife through butter leaving the actual body to take the brunt of the damage. It couldn't. A cloud of dust came up with the impact. Immediately after, I withdrew my bloodied hand from the dead Vandal and grabbed the Maverick firing just one shot into the head of the other Vandal and letting fall over dead as well. I holstered the Maverick without making sure the area was clear of enemies.

I stood up and brushed my cloak off with my left hand and flung the thick blood of the Fallen off of my right with a series of flicks and shakes. Noticing that the effort was futile without some water or cloth, I started searching around in the pockets that weren't taken up by ammunition. Finding none, I threw off the gloves and allowed Starco to despawn them. "What'd you do that for?" he asked in my suit's comm system.

"I'm testing something. Now, spawn them back in from the inventory," I said. He did so a few moments afterwards. The gauntlets and gloves appeared in my hands as good as new. "Why didn't you tell me this before? I wouldn't have had to get new armor if you had told me respawning the armor cleans it."

"Well, that old armor was a piece of crap anyway. Really, it was barely able to function. You needed better armor, so I withheld that information from you."

I dropped the subject and put the gauntlets and gloves back on as I half-jogged to Lee and Roald. I was met with a pat on the back from Lee and a "Good job," from Roald.

It wasn't that much farther to the wall, only about 300 yards or so, from where the two Titans had been standing. Once we arrived, we stopped a fireteam of two Warlocks (one in a short, white cloak and the other in a full-length gray one) and a white-cloaked Hunter that were busy assisting with the Wall rather than keeping watch. Only one of them stopped. "Where is the could we find the Commanding Officer for our orders?" I asked the Warlock in the white cloak.

"Not really much in the way of orders," the Guardian started with the voice of a female Exo. "Almost nothing happens, so we help with rebuilding the Wall, but since you asked, Zavala is somewhere around here. Not sure where though."

"Thanks anyways," I said walking off back towards the rest of my team. "What's Zavala doing here? It's not like we're staging a major strike or anything. At least, not yet I would think."

"I concur," Roald responded. "It is rather strange. The Vanguard are usually so busy with other things that they wouldn't take the time to watch over the Guardians without legitimate reason."

Lee just shrugged and said, "At any rate, we need orders, so let's go find him."

No walking was necessary as a deep voice said behind us, "Looking for me?" We turned around and saw the Titan Vanguard in his white and red armor standing behind us, helmet off, with a slight smile on his blue face. He had a black Scout Rifle slung over his shoulder, but despite the lack of targets, he kept it out. "Ah yes, Beta 8," he studied some electronic tablet that he pulled out of a pocket. "Not much in the way of orders for you, but I do want you perched on top of the Wall in a sniping vantage point and serve as support should a sudden attack arise. That is all. Now get to your posts."

We saluted and walked onto a nearby lift to the top of the Wall. We all pulled out our Sniper Rifles. I pulled out the burnt orange-colored Civilian Applications; Lee took out his red rifle that he identified as the _Violator XII_; Roald equipped a reddish-orange gun with a large white scope, the _Silvered Caracas LR4_ he called it.

Nothing came out of the forest for the first three hours of our shift. We saw the transports pick up the other fireteams, but we weren't due for return for another five hours or so. The two Titans sat down around that time to eat their lunches provided by a nearby deli. They took the lift and disappeared from sight. Only minutes after, I saw a couple of Dregs wander out of the forest. I quickly aimed down the sight and focused on the two targets. One of the targets was right in front of the other just for a small moment, but just long enough for me to squeeze off a shot.

As soon as I squeezed the trigger, I saw the blue light blue streak travel the large distance from the top of the Wall to the targets. The shot passed through the chest of a Dreg but killed both targets. I realized it as soon as it happened, 'That overpenetration Arla told me about is no joke!"

That was the last piece of action that happened in those remaining hours of our shift.

Lee and Roald returned about an hour after the shots, but sat against the rise of the Wall, helmets off, talking almost all the entire time on a variety of topics. I also sat down with about two hours left in the shift. Nothing had happened and I began to doubt whether something else would. We all sat against the rising piece of the Wall with helmets off and rifles next to us. Our Ghosts also joined in as well; they flew in and out of view either talking amongst themselves or contributing to our conversation.

I looked to my right as Lee was saying something about taking down some sort of gang before he was a Guardian. The sun was beginning to set; it turned those gray rain clouds that had passed a good hour and a half ago brilliant shades of orange, red and pink. I looked behind and saw the Traveler was bathed in the same orange light. The natural beauty that it had, especially with the sunset reflecting off of it, was magnificent despite the damaged portion on the bottom. Starco and Roald's Ghost, Demi, both reflected parts of the sunset in the color schemes of their shells. Parts of Starco's black turned the same oranges, pinks, and reds, whereas Demi's singular gold stripe in the middle (both top and bottom) of the green was more of a burnt orange.

"Hey Lee," I said. "What time is it on that watch of yours?"

He peeled back the glove. "5:15. OH CRAP! We're late!" The Ghosts disappeared, and we all threw our helmets on over our heads and grabbed the Rifles. We jumped down from the Wall, using the Glide or Lift (for the Titans) features of our armor to slow our descent onto the ground.

We looked around for any sign of a transport shuttle. None was found. Suddenly, a firm hand gripped my left arm as I started to walk. I turned around to a Hunter. "You guys Beta 8?" he said.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" I asked.

"We sent multiple messages over the comms for you. Your transport has been here for about 15 minutes or so."

"Sorry about that. We didn't hear the message," I said.

"Distracted by the scenery?"

"Just a little bit," I responded.

"Happens to all of us at one point or another. The transport is waiting for you over there."

"I don't see it," Lee piped up.

The Hunter pointed in the direction of a large amount of building material stacked up much higher than it should probably be. "From here, you can't see it due to those materials, but it's just on the other side of it."

"Alright then," Lee said and sprinted off in that direction. Roald nodded to the Hunter as we both hurried to catch up with the other Titan.

It wasn't too long before we landed at the Tower. The transport dropped us off at the main plaza rather than the hangar. I didn't go to my room to sleep; instead, I headed straight to the infirmary to my fallen teammate, mostly to check how long much longer she'd be in the stasis machine. I have no idea where Lee and Roald went off to other than they did not join me.

I paused in front of the metal railing that served as a barrier between the plaza of the Tower and death below. I could see a dozen or so lights flying around in the distance from ships doing various tasks. Large buildings decorated a possible industrial zone or commercial district. I stopped and gazed at the Traveler, its white planet-like appearance dwarfed the size of the City. Though damaged, it looked menacing in the evening light the Sun casted on it.

As I stared, I saw a small light on the center of the Traveler, no bigger than the head of a pin at first. The light got steadily bigger as seconds passed, but I continued staring with intrigue. All of a sudden, I felt something extremely fast impact my face. My vision was completely white, and this whiteness did not allow for anything to be seen behind it. After what seemed like forever, my systems overloaded, and, as a safeguard, shut down. My vision turned black, and I fell onto the ground behind me.

At first, everything remained an opaque and inky darkness. A bright flash of light, originating from the center of my "field of view" illuminated the darkness and allowed me to see. I was standing in an area made of extremely large stone bricks with some sort of moss on them. There was a couple bridge-type structures made of the same materials. 3 large and moss covered statues with hands extended outward and upward were located on the left, center, and right; dozens of smaller statues kneeled all around these statues. As I looked up, there was a strange shape that was constantly shifting in seemingly flowing fashion.

Something suddenly whispered, "Destroy the heart." The statues in the center moved slightly. "Destroy the heart," the whisper said with growing intensity. The statues turned their head my direction and began standing up. "Destroy the heart!" The small statues, in addition to the large ones, started moving my direction with beam weapons charging; I couldn't move at all. The voice now yelled, "DESTROY THE HEART!" All the weapons fired at once and my vision once again exploded into whiteness.

Everything rebooted immediately after what seemed to happen. My vision remained white though. A few seconds later, blurred lines appeared and came into focus; different colors also came back. I was in an infirmary room.

Starco floated around a nearby couch underneath a window. He noticed that I was "back" and floated over. "Good, you're alive. You won't believe what that was."

"Yeah, and what would that be?" I said while sitting up in the bed.

"That was pure light from the Traveler. It sent you and the suit into complete overdrive. You produced over 20 Motes of Light in just a few seconds; it was amazing to be frank."

"Well, you didn't have to go through what I just saw."

"Ok. So what did you see?" Starco said with curious intent.

"Lots of these robot things. They had a cone-shaped head and white lights in their middle, red eyes. I've never seen anything like them before. They were statues to begin with, and then they came to life. Just before they attacked, I saw this large metal blob constantly changing shape several stories above me, and a voice saying, 'Destroy the Heart!' I don't know what to make of it."

"Neither do I. I think we should go to the Speaker."

"I agree, but I have more pressing matters to attend to first."

"More important than a vision from the Traveler itself?! I'm not sure you're calculating this right. You have a duty to defend this City _AND_ the Traveler from the Darkness; this type of thing is to be reported to the Traveler immediately."

"Yeah well, I also have a duty to my teammates!" I said in a raised voice.

Starco fell silent for several seconds and angled downward. Before he said anything else, I asked, "How long was I out anyway?"

"Four days. Each of the Vanguard have come in; Ikora twice."

"Probably just a formality."

"No. There were at least 12 witnesses to what happened. Let's just say that you weren't on the ground for more than 30 seconds before several Guardians took you into the infirmary."

"Where's Marshall?" I practically yelled as I disconnected the various machines monitoring my mechanisms, systems and processes. No alarms blared after the systems recognized that I had reactivated.

"You know something Maximus, that shouldn't be any of your concern," a familiar female voice stated tauntingly from the doorway. The figure was tossing a small knife as she leaned against the doorway. Neat, brown hair, cut just above the shoulder, seemed to flow on top of a green face with bright green eyes that still had a glowing quality to it.

"You're healed," I said matter-of-factly.

"I forgot to mention that," Starco said, once more floating over the couch.

"No more opening of those wounds then?"

"Yes. I'm fine. What happened to you a few days ago? I heard that some Exo, a rare thing I might say, was admitted into the infirmary…"

"Just let's get out of here," I said while standing up. My leg armor was still on, but the blue metal plating on my chest was in plain view. I almost walked out of the room like that when Arla placed a hand in the center of the upper part of the plating saying, "Not so fast. You may want to put on your chest armor and stuff first." She shoved me back into the room.

Starco said, "The Bond is on the couch." I turned from the doorway and grabbed the Bond from the couch. I pulled it up just above the elbow joints, and the armor appeared in just a few seconds. My robe was folded up on the couch just to the right of where the Bond was sitting a few moments ago.

"Happy now?" I sarcastically questioned Arla.

"Much," was her response. She placed the small knife on her belt and straightened her posture. "Follow me."

I complied with Starco hovering just above my right shoulder. We walked out of the infirmary and into the lift that would take us to the Plaza. "So tell me what happened," Arla practically commanded.

I told her about the vision. The robots, the strange metal form, everything. Her eyes grew wide. "Are you sure of what you saw?"

"Yes," I started. "Do you know what they are?"

"You don't?!"

"Um, I was kind of dead for…" Starco interrupted me.

"156 years," Starco finished.

"Right, 156 years. So, do you mind explaining?" The lift opened and we continued walking at a brisk pace. Outside, it was raining quite hard; thunder rolled in the distance as flashes of lightning temporarily lit up the area every 30-45 seconds or so. Large puddles were gathering water rather quickly. Arla started talking again.

"The Vex. That's what you saw. Almost a meld of mind and machine that appeared on Venus during the Collapse. Nobody knows where they came from other than they literally rose from the ground and spilled onto the surface in droves. They teleported straight into military installations and destroyed them quickly and efficiently as the weapons the inhabitants had at the time had no effect on the tough plating."

"Is that still the case?" I blurted.

"Of course not. The development of energy weapons and improved ballistics and rifling have given us a better chance at beating them. The largest problem we face is how many of them there are. It is said that they outnumber us at least 75 to 1 perhaps even more especially considering the events as of late."

"What do you mean, 'as of late.'" I interrupted again.

"I'm mostly referring to the Battle a few days ago, but there have been other difficulties too."

"Like…"

"The Fallen launched another attack. It was smaller than the last one by far, but dozens of citizens working on the Wall were killed. We lost nearly 18 Guardians."

"How big was the force?"

"120 or so. It was an ambush that killed the Twelve-G scouting team…"

"I get it, I get it." I interrupted. "But two things: First, what do you mean by 'G'? You've used it a couple times and I'm slightly confused by that. Second,_ what do you mean by other difficulties?_"

Arla sighed. "G is a quick term for Guardian. Don't ask where it came from because I don't know; I just use it sometimes, probably most use it once or twice. For you second question, you'll have to see for yourself." She started walking a little quicker. We stopped at a different lift, and entered.

It opened up at the hallway that I recalled had Arla's room on it. We walked over to her room and she entered. I stood outside against the wall adjacent to her quarters and waited. A few seconds later, her head popped around the corner of her doorway. "What are you doing? Come in, come in," she beckoned.

I entered without saying anything. The room was furnished very similarly to mine except that her walls were light blue with some sort of shape made of smaller rectangles that looked very similar to a square made of smaller rectangles. Above the table to my right was several racks where different guns were stored, ranging from various sniper rifles and shotguns to scout rifles and automatic assault rifles, arranged according to what denomination of weapon they were along with a card with the name of the weapon beneath it.

"Impressive collection," I said.

"Not a collection," Arla corrected. "An arsenal. I've used all of these at least once." As I looked at each of the individual guns, one of the auto rifles looked strangely out of place. It was rear-loaded and a gray color. 'Hard Light' the nametag read.

I turned to Arla, who was now holding some sort of tablet in her hand, "What's going on with this gun? I think you may have it mislabeled. It looks like a pulse rifle."

"Ah, you are mistaken Maximus," she replied with a slight chuckle. "That weapon is an exotic, and the weapon I'm currently using as a primary. 40 shot magazine, full auto. The shots over-penetrate and are able to bounce off of hard surfaces. I think it's a pretty good weapon. Got it from some guy named Xȗr. He comes by once a week for a couple of days. Think of him like a black market salesman, but he seldom brings in something illegal."

"Has he though?" I inquired.

"Yes, the pulse rifle over there." Arla pointed at a pulse rifle with a knife attached bayonet-style to it. It was partially painted red to look like blood and gray in the parts it was not. The knife looked vicious even if the "blood" was painted on.

"So, how'd you get it if it's illegal?"

"Vanguard commendation. Cayde-6 knows me on a first name basis and trusts I won't lacerate somebody with the knife."

"Which leads me to another question. Is that real blood?"

Arla laughed for a moment. "No, just paint." Her demeanor suddenly changed completely. "Now the thing I was going to show you." She tapped away on the tablet and pulled up some news footage dated yesterday.

Hundreds of civilians stood in front of the base of the Tower with signs protesting the Guardians and their efforts. Clips of audio showed that they were saying that the Guardians were not protecting sufficiently and would eventually lead to the destruction of the City.

"This is absurd!" I commented. "We can't control the Fallen or how fast the Wall is rebuilt."

"There's just some things people don't understand until they're thrust into the action. Either way, the Speaker calmed down the protesters, and they went home without damage to themselves or the Tower."

I was about to speak when Arla held her left hand to me and placed her right hand on her right ear. "Lee just got back from another stint at the Wall. We should go meet him." She powered down the tablet and threw it down on the bed. She grabbed the Hard Light rifle and a red and blue shotgun. I checked for my three weapons. They were absent, but Starco spawned them in and I put them in the holster and appropriate slings. We left the room and resumed the brisk pace from earlier towards the Tower Hangar.


	10. The City

Chapter 10

The City

Lee was waiting for us at the Gunsmith's shop instead of the hangar. His helmet hung in his left hand at his side and his Ghost, Striker, floated about nearby. His face was covered in exhaustion, but a slight smile was still present. I wasn't sure if it was sweat beading on his forehead or the slight drizzle of the rain; then again, it probably was a mixture of both. He said nothing as we walked towards the Ex-Marshall, but he had a slight look of surprise in his eyes when he saw both Arla and myself walking without a doctor entailing or some sort of bandage wrapped around some appendage.

He gave a hearty laugh and put an arm over my shoulder. "You, my friend, gave us quite a scare. So what happened? I was walking with Roald to hit the gym, I look back, and you're laying on the ground dead as a statue."

"It's a bit of a long story…" I began.

"Well, good. You can tell it while we go get something to eat, I'm starving! I know this nice sandwich shop over on 35th. Ate there at least 3 times a week when I worked for the City."

"We're allowed to do that? Leave, I mean." I asked.

"Of course. In fact, the Speaker wants us to have more interactions with the locals to gain their more of their trust with recent events and all."

"I briefed him," Arla said matter-of-factly. She relaxed a little more and spoke less harshly. "We can take my ship."

"Why not," Lee replied.

"It's a bit of a waste of resources, isn't it?" I inserted into the conversation. "There isn't another way down?"

"There is, but the lift for that is out of order. Some idiot brought several shipments of guns using that elevator. The cable snapped on the way down when someone at the base of the Tower hailed it. Repair estimate is around 2 months for the new parts to be manufactured, assembled, and for the actual remodeling of the elevator itself," Arla replied.

"You'd think the building designers would have put a set of stairs or something as a back up."

"Sometimes, planning mistakes are made," Lee said. "Let's not think about it."

"I'll hail the ship," Arla said while pushing some sort of buttons on of small device.

The restaurant Lee led us to was extremely small. It had a counter covered on one side (closest to the customer) by glass with various ingredients on the other side. A large electronic board had various sandwiches priced very cheaply. A heavy-set human male with dark skin and a buzzcut stood behind the glass, and an extremely skinny, red-headed human male with acne on his face stood behind a cash register. Some sort of music steadily moved through the small establishment.

I sat alone at one of the eight or so tables while Lee and Arla got and paid for their food. Walking through the crowded streets of the City, I felt out of place with the armor which immediately made us stand out among the civilians. I leaned back against the chair, which had my unzipped cloak hung over it.

A loud sizzling sound overpowered the music. When I looked over to the source, the dark-skinned employee was adding a large portion of some cut of meat to a grill on the opposite side of the counter. Arla was walking away from the register with a red tray in her hand. She sat her tray down opposite of me but grabbed a cup from it and walked over to a machine with a screen and what was probably various drinks for dispensing.

I looked out of the wide window in front of me that sat adjacent to the door. Humans, Awoken, and Exos alike went about their business likely without a second thought to what was beyond the wall. 'Scratch that,' I thought. 'They were probably a little more aware with the recent attacks by the Fallen, but they weren't as concerned about it as the Guardians were.' I saw a pair of Titans (a black female Exo and one male, light green Awoken) and a white-faced Exo Warlock casually strolled by the window of the sandwich shop without a second glance to us inside.

I got out of my seat and looked out of the window. The Traveler was much bigger from here than it was from the Tower, but it also looked much more decrepit as more of the broken bottom portion of it was visible. I tore my gaze from it and sat back down at the table. Arla returned from the machine holding the cup full of a brown, fizzing liquid. Lee sat down seconds later with a longer sandwich compared to Arla's two foil-wrapped rectangular sandwiches.

"Ah, a Philly Cheesesteak. A sandwich centuries old, but it is so good along with a basket of French Fries. Classic, that's all you need to know," he said. He started digging in hungrily while Arla took a much slower approach to eating her food. When the Marshall came up for air between quick series of bites, he would boast that only this place could do a Philly right, or he and Arla would continue a debate over which drink (that they called a soda) was best.

While listening to their small argument, I got the feeling something was awry here. Like we were being watched. Pretending to check for something in one of the inside pockets of the robe, I put a hand on the Maverick. I also had Starco quietly spawn in my helmet in my lap under the table. I shifted in my seat to get a little more situated with the helmet as one of the spikes on the helmet was dangerously close to hitting the table and alerting them to my uneasiness.

I was successful in situating the helmet, but Arla saw my movement. "Maximus, there's no need to be so fidgety."

"I'm good, I'm good," I replied. I saw her eyes flicker underneath the table when I said that.

Arla sighed deeply. "Why do you have your helmet under the table?" I felt its weight disappear; Starco must have despawned it.

"Alright, you got me," I said putting my hands in the air.

"Dude, nothing's going to happen," Lee stated. "The Wall has double security during its reconstruction. Our next assignment hasn't even come in yet. We should be able to relax for a couple days and then return to the Wall and sit around then…"

Arla held up her hand to Lee. "But if you have to go outside for a minute, just go."

I stood up and put on the my cloak making sure to push my chair in as I walked to the door. I turned the corner of the building into an alley and leaned up against the side of the wall.

"What was that all about?" Starco said appearing a couple feet in front of me.

"To be honest, I couldn't begin to tell you. Something's off," I replied.

"I'll have to agree with you on that one. the streets on both sides are clearing out for some reason."

I shrugged. "Maybe people have things to do in other places or…"

"Something worse," a hushed, bass voice said to my right.

I instantly drew my gun and pointed in the direction of the voice. A dark figure in a hood with two white eyes occupied the alley about 6 or 7 feet in front of me.

"You probably shouldn't shoot. I am important to many," the figure said confidently.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"My identity is of no matter to you, but my reward may be. You wouldn't happen to be a Guardian, would you?" I still pointed the gun at the two eyes. "It seems that something of mine either has been stolen or will be stolen not too long from now. Investigate. A large warehouse is just beyond this alleyway behind me. Investigate there."

The eyes either disappeared altogether, or the figure closed them and got out of the way. In either case, the figure was gone, and I was once again alone in the alley. I lowered the gun but kept to hands on it.

I proceeded through the alley and came out on the other side. The street was completely empty without exception. Just as the figure said, there was a large warehouse. I crossed the empty street to it and entered. It was dark for a moment, but the lights immediately flashed on revealing crate upon crate on several shelves across several aisles. Upon investigating a crate, I noticed that the crates had either guns or a type of ammunition inside.

"This must be the Tower armory," Starco said. "It's strange why they would put it in the middle of the public. A lot of this stuff is extremely dangerous, especially to the untrained civilian.

"Something is definitely not right here," I stated flatly. I investigated several aisles that contained nothing in them except for the shelves of crates and stagnant air. A clang and the soft sound of shotgun shells hitting a concrete floor echoed from 2 aisles down. Starco disappeared and spawned my helmet in. I put it on and ran quickly to the source of the noise. I looked down the hall and saw a crouched figure in black at the end of it loading an extremely large weapon, an empty box of shells lay near the figure.

I brandished my hand cannon. "Hold it!" I commanded, my voice echoing off of the metal walls around me. I started walking slowly to the figure.

"I wouldn't come any closer," the black hooded figure spoke without looking at me. "I'm armed!"

"So am I. You're point is?"

"I don't want to hurt you. Just let me leave and it'll all be fine."

"Yeah, I don't think there's much of a chance of that happening. Now how about you stand up and put the weapon down. Then maybe, I you'll get off with only a couple of years in prison."

"So what?" he yelled standing up. "It's not like you're a Guar...no, no, no!" He fired off a shot. A couple struck my shields and caused a moderate amount of damage to them, but I was unscathed. He started running around the warehouse firing every so often (to no effect) and knocking over smaller crates to obscure my path. Neither tactic worked to much.

Eventually, the figure had to reload. Instead of doing so, the thief bolted out the front door and turned right. I followed a few seconds behind. I threw open the door and looked to the right for the criminal. The wide side of gun's stock filled my view and made powerful contact with my helmet causing me to fall backwards slightly disoriented from the impact. I heard my gun get clatter to the ground and the hooded figure climbed on top of me and pinned me to the ground. We struggled for a couple minutes, but I eventually punched my now-assailant in the gut.

Reeling from the blow, the thief backed away and stood up. I scrambled to my feet as well and put my right hand behind my back, opening the fist. I faced towards the warehouse now. The man in the hood charged with a fist being prepared after recovering. He jumped two feet or so away and prepared to punch. I thrust my right hand forward, opening the hand completely. The crack from the melee echoed off of the buildings in the empty street. The figure flew back into the front wall of the warehouse eight feet up. He fell back to the ground with a solid thud.

I walked over to his limp body and turned it over. It was the same Awoken that attacked me in my quarters: Blue skin, buzzed blonde hair, but he lacked the mask from last time. His eyes were closed, but there wasn't a cut on his head. I wasn't sure if he was dead or unconscious. With as hard as he hit the wall, my guess would be the former.

His eyes suddenly opened. I instinctively put my hand around his throat but did not squeeze. "When I lift my hand, you will be gone. Otherwise, I will shoot you without a second thought."

The criminal laughed. "I thought Guardians were supposed to keep the peace."

"Not when they are assaulted twice by the same person!" I emphasized my advantage over him by placing more of my weight on his chest and beginning to squeeze lightly. "Now let me reiterate. When I release you, you will run away and I will never see you again!"

"Ok, ok. I'm gone."

I released him and stepped back. He laid there for a second but scrambled to his feet. We were only about 2 feet apart. His face was full of fear, but suddenly turned to rage. The Awoken reared back a fist. As soon as he did that, I snatched Maverick from the holster and fired off a shot before he could put any forward motion into the punch. His eyes went extremely wide as he toppled to the ground holding his upper right leg crying out in pain. "I warned you," I said re-holstering the gun and walked over to the gun he dropped.

It was an extremely large shotgun with a brown coloring to it. I grabbed it by the midsection and carried it inside the warehouse, but upon entering, I noticed that the lights were off once again. I placed it on the first crate I saw and started walking out. The door was in arm's length when a strong hand spun me around. It was the same low voiced stranger from earlier. I could just barely make out his form in the extremely dim warehouse.

"Thank you Guardian. You have saved my stock from that thieving raider. Now if I may ask your name?" the stranger inquired.

"Wait, so this is your stuff? Not the Tower's?"

"Oh, yes. You could say I have an exotic selection of weaponry here as well as some armor pieces. Now your name or do you just have a serial number, Exo?"

"Maximus. And yours?"

"You will know soon enough." He grabbed the shotgun from the top of the crate and placed it in the crook of one of his elbows. The stranger opened the crate and removed something from it; he promptly closed the crate and moved to a different one, opened it and removed yet another item and placed it in his right hand. The stranger walked back over to me and gave me the awkward stack of what seemed to be three weapons. "Go now. Meet your fireteam. Arla and the Marshall await you."

"Wait, how did you…?" I attempted to ask, but the shadowy figure gave me a hard shove and I tumbled outside back into the street. I held on to the weapons without dropping them, but I landed in a half-formed ball shape on the street outside. I set them on the ground and examined each.

One was obviously a brown scout rifle with some sort of scope. The second was the large brown shotgun from earlier. The third was a stark white auto rifle with a red section a six inches or so from the iron sights. "SUROS" decorated the gun's barrel on both sides.

Starco suddenly appeared. "Let me get a scan on these." The light blue stream of light ran over each of the three weapons. "Ok, so that guy just gave you three exotic primary weapons for absolutely free. The scout rifle is one called MIDA Multi-Tool. From Tower records, after each kill, the gun sends energy into the armor increasing movement speed from the movement assists preloaded into the suit's systems; it also increases in fire rate. The shotgun is one called Universal Remote. Great at close range and increases range somehow by ADS. Finally, the auto rifle is SUROS Regime. Less than 200 produced by the company. The bottom half of the magazine features rounds that turn into shrapnel upon impact and causes extra damage to the target. Take your pick I guess, and I'll assimilate it into the inventory."

I ripped off my helmet and let it despawn. I sat down and picked up each one, feeling the weight and looking down the sights. After a minute or two to think about the decision, "I'll go with the MIDA Multi-Tool," I said, confident with my decision. The gun disappeared, but I felt a dramatic weight shift on my back.

"Due to a lack of room, I've moved Unfriendly Giant into the inventory ready whenever you need it. The Multi-Tool is over your left shoulder crossing Civilian Applications. Let's go meet the others."

I walked through the alley carrying the other weapons, one in each hand. I turned the corner to re-enter the restaurant and ran straight into Arla. I stepped back a bit and she fell straight on her butt on the sidewalk. I tossed the white gun to Marshall behind her and pulled her up by the hand.

"My bad," I started.

"Don't stress about it. You alright Lee?" Arla said. No response from Marshall. "Lee?"

She turned around and saw the same thing I did. Marshall Lee was just staring down at the gun in his hands wide-eyed and mouth hanging open. I waved my hand in front of Lee's face to no avail. Arla stepped up to him and took off the right glove I assumed she had just put back on after eating. She slapped his face hard with an extremely loud sound following. Lee took the hit and came to his senses with a bright red mark extremely prominent on his face.

"Where did you get this?" He asked basically in a whisper. Suddenly, Universal Remote was yanked from my hand by Arla.

"Yeah, where'd you get these? It's not everyday that you find a member of your fireteam with two extremely powerful exotic weapons. You didn't steal them? Did you?" Arla said with total shock in her voice.

"I actually have three. Some guy cloaked entirely in shadow gave them to me after stopping a robbery at his cache near here. No idea who he was, but he seemed to know who you two were saying to give two of the weapons he gave me to you. I guess the decision is settled?"

"You got that right," Lee said holding the Regime up and looking down the sights with pure joy written all across his face.

"That is," I inserted. "unless you want the MIDA Multi-Tool."

"No, no. I actually don't have this shotgun yet. I may have to try it in the firing range or something."

"We should probably be getting back to the Tower soon," I said. Arla and Marshall both agreed, and the ship was hailed as we walked to the place the ship would pick us up.


	11. Surprise Revelation

Chapter 11

Surprise Revelation

The ship landed at the Tower hangar only a few minutes later. Lee was still beaming at his new weapon strapped to his back. Arla seemed generally pleased as well but had not said anything about it. As soon as the ship was stopped, Lee sprinted out likely going to the firing range to test out his new gun. Arla and I walked out of the ship and went our separate ways wordlessly, just a singular nod between us.

I walked out of the hangar back to the Plaza. I stood at the upstairs railing closer to the mail center. The Plaza was mostly empty aside from the usual vendors; I saw five Guardians walking around. Two were talking to each other while another two were walking into the northern part of the Tower. One was with an Awoken in a hood holding some sort of tablet. From the small pieces of the conversation I caught, they were discussing the possibilities of solving some sort of blue dodecahedron. From the tone of her voice, she was either disappointed in what she could possibly get from it or the result as the item had dissolved a few seconds before.

I just stood there watching for a while trying to interpret what I had seen what seemed like not too long ago but had been a few days ago. 'The heart,' I thought. 'What could it be? And these things called the Vex. I want to know how Arla knew of them.' There were so many questions that needed answering. "Y'know Starco? You were right when you said I wouldn't understand a lot of things. When I was a soldier, it was just the Fallen. What else is out there?"

"Starco appeared just to my right. "The armies the Darkness controls are much more numerous than we could ever hope to be. You saw that battle at the Wall. The force there was a fraction of a percent. There's also an ancient species that called the HIve. They are primarily on the Moon, but there are reports that they have been seeding Earth. The good part of that is the two have been primarily fighting each other rather than us."

"Duly noted," I said.

"As Arla said, there is the Vex. We don't have too much on them, but we do know that they are robotic creatures that basically cleared out the inhabitants of Venus within a matter of days. Finally, there is the Cabal. They are a full-fledged civilization on Mars, highly militaristic and developed. From the reconnaissance teams that have been sent to Mars, they've built massive checkpoints and bases as well. Reports say that they are actually winning against the invading Vex."

"So in essence, we are outmanned and outgunned in almost every possible way imaginable."

"I guess you could say that, but that vision of your may just hold the key to what we need to do to at least slow down the Vex, if not stop them altogether. There's a place called the Black Garden, completely uncharted and off any map we have. We don't know how to open it, but the Awoken in the Reef do."

"Then why haven't we asked them?"

"Because they don't want us there at all. They either turn around our ships or don't answer our request for a meeting."

I stood silent for a minute just pondering what we could do. Starco filled the silence. "Anyway, the heart thing is only a theory. After all, they could still come after us even without the heart just not as strong."

"So in essence, we don't know how to stop them," I stated.

"Hey, you said it, not me."

I looked over to the City with the Traveler floating above it. Night was beginning to fall, and the lights from the City seemed to illuminate the surrounding area without a single speck of dark. I once again focused my gaze onto the activity below me. Only the two Guardians speaking remained of those that were coming and going earlier. I went down the steps, heading towards the lift that would take me to the hall where my quarters were.

The door opened as I approached it, and a human Titan dressed in heavy red armor stepped out of the elevator with a determined, almost angry, look to every part of his face. I stepped out of his way and got into the lift.

When I entered my room, it was empty as it usually was. I had the lights come on as soon as the door opened. I set my weapons on the table by the door and shrugged off the cloak. I took off the bond, allowing the armor to despawn, and changed into some casual clothing and lay down on the bed. Starco shut off the lights as I powered off for the night.

I powered up around 8 in the morning. I sat up in the bed and looked around the quiet room. I could hear servos clicking and systems spinning up as well as just run various diagnostics. Everything seemed to be in operating order, so I stood up and slid the bond up past the elbow. When the armor was finished loading, I put the cloak on and slung the weapons into place.

When I reached the plaza, I was immediately met with the rain that seemed to have restarted again. It was harder than it had been yesterday when Arla and I met Marshall. Rather than just taking the rain, most of the Guardians (a good 20 or so) had put on their helmets. I conformed to the majority and put on my own helmet. I approached Banshee's gunsmithy.

I hadn't even gotten up to the table when he called my name. His ability to recognize me with the helmet on was surprising. "Maximus! How are you holding up?" he called from the stand.

"Just fine I guess. Why do you ask?" I responded.

"Well, I was one of the ones that helped you to the infirmary a few days ago. Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"Uh, well. I'm looking for some Scout Rifle ammunition. I got a new weapon recently…"

"What weapon is it?" Banshee interrupted.

I unclipped it from the sling and handed him the MIDA Multi-Tool. "My Ghost analyzed it as the MIDA Multi-Tool."

"An exotic then? I've heard very good things about it. Now that you have an exotic weapon, I feel obliged to tell you a warning about exotics if you haven't heard it of course."

"What is it?"

"Whenever something is equipped, it connects to your armor and the computer systems within it. Exotics take up a massive amount of energy for them to function fully. You can only have one exotic weapon and one piece of armor equipped at one time, otherwise, you run the risk of overloading the suit's systems and that renders the entire suit useless as you've practically destroyed every system. New armor is extremely expensive without a Vanguard Commendation or some other high-ranking pass. My point is, just stick to one exotic weapon and one piece of exotic armor."

"I follow you," I simply stated attempting to comprehend the why rather than the what.

"So let's take a deeper analysis into the weapon then. Come around, so that you can see what all I'm about to point at." He lifted a flap in the table, and I walked through. We both leaned over the gun.

"So, what you have here is one of the best Scout Rifles that has ever been manufactured for Guardian use. I've seen only 10 before that Xȗr guy started coming through. Nowadays, I've seen upwards of 50, but it doesn't get rid of the thrill of holding such power in your hand. Yours is the first one I've seen in about 3 weeks or so." He shifted focus to the task of showing the ropes of the gun. "Now, the gun is rear-loaded with a slanted magazine. It's semi-auto with a short stock and a scope, of course, these are things you could figure out from firing it and looking at it. I assume that your Ghost told you about the special 'talents' it carries with it?"

"He did. It boosts movement speed and movement assists to the suit's power. What assists was he referring to though, he did not tell me."

"Ah, not many actually get a boost. A few systems get minor bursts of energy, but it's mostly assists in your gloves. The gun itself actually makes the trigger more sensitive and sends energy to the gloves to increase the speed of your trigger finger."

"So in a way, it increases the firing rate, without actually increasing the fire rate. If you follow what I mean," I blurted.

"Precisely. Now, the gun authorizes a 21 shot magazine, which is decent for a Scout Rifle. However, the range isn't as good as other Scout Rifles I've seen, but it should serve you well in mid-range combat. After all, long range is a sniper rifle's job anyway." Banshee laughed at the comment but then got serious again. "It also as 'Smart Drift Control' in it which is an automated system within it that greatly reduces the recoil of the weapon, but it does decrease range slightly."

"Shouldn't be much of a problem. Anything else?"

"Uh, yes there is actually," Banshee said. "Exotic weapons take special types of ammunition. MIDA, otherwise known as Munitions Industry Development Association, sends in most of the ammunition that we use in our weapons, so I have plenty of the Multi-Tool's magazine. I'll sell you three boxes of 2 clips for 200 Glimmer apiece."

"Not a bad price. Starco," I said to my Ghost in the suit's systems. "pay the man please."

"You're the boss," Starco said from within the systems. Six large shards spawned onto the table, and the three boxes of ammunition that Banshee grabbed from one of the shelves in the back disappeared almost in unison.

"I'm about due for a break. Do you mind having a walk with me for a few minutes Maximus?" the Gunsmith offered.

"I have nothing against it," I said clipping the gun back onto its sling and securing it on my back.

A Tower robot appeared from around the corner and took his post as Banshee lifted the flap that allowed us to exit. We began walking around the Plaza in what I would later realize was a circle around the area.

He didn't waste any time asking questions. "So what happened a few days ago? You were standing one moment, and the next, you were stumbling about for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground."

I told him about everything that happened that evening. The speck of light from the Traveler all the way until the dream. "I asked Arla, one of my fireteam members about it. She believes that it was referring to the Heart in the Black Garden."

"As it probably was," Banshee started. "The Vex, to be truthful, are the biggest threat to the Traveler. The rest will die out either through our teams killing them or by waging war between each other. Sure the Hive can seed other planets, but they are ancient. Nature will catch up with them eventually. The Vex can rationalize like a brain, if not better, and live longer than any machine created anywhere in the solar system. Patrols on Venus and Mars have reported vast underground systems for quick troop deployment as well as massive amounts of units far-outnumbering the number of Guardians we have. If they get on Earth, it's basically game over for the Traveler and all of us because they are numerous and well-armed."

"That's very similar to what Arla said."

"So what do you think about your fireteam's promotion?"

"What promotion?"

"It wasn't supposed to be common knowledge yet, but the Vanguard are establishing a frontier task force composed of 15 or so fireteams. Despite the recent injuries to your team, they see it fit to send you out to where Guardians are few and far between. Rumor is that your next assignment has something to do with the Moon."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"70 or so years ago? No. Now, it's a pretty big deal considering that the Fallen and the Hive have overrun it. They'll probably be sending you to the Anchor of Light unless something bad has happened."

"I want to know how practically everybody knows about my orders when I had no idea myself."

"That, I couldn't tell you even if I knew. You may want to consult the Vanguard about that."

"In fact, I think I will. We'll have to continue our conversation later. Thanks for the information and ammunition Banshee," I said breaking off of the route and sprinting to the Vanguard's area.

I took the stairs three at a time and nearly bowled over a human female just walking by. I pushed aside several other people as well to avoid hitting them in my sprint. I arrived at the spacious room that the Vanguard resided in for most of the day. Several robots and people were standing at various consoles performing different tasks likely beyond my comprehension.

I climbed down another short set of stairs to reach the Vanguard. Cayde-6 was focused on some sort of map in front of him. Commander Zavala was staring out the large window that faced opposite of the table where he stood, while Ikora was leaned up against the table looking at a tablet. She noticed me and said, "Yes Guardian?"

"Ikora, I have a question for you."

"I may have an answer, but to whom am I speaking with?" she asked.

"You don't recognize me?" I said slightly confused.

"Helmet, Guardian."

"Oh, that's right!" I quickly took off the helmet and held it in my right hand.

"Much better Maximus," Ikora said with a small laugh to herself. "Now, what can I help you with?"

"I would like to know what all this talk about a promotion and frontier exploring is, and why my fireteam is apart of it. I also want to know why practically everybody else besides myself knows?!" I noticed that I was raising my voice louder as the statement went on, a completely subconscious event that I didn't mean to perform.

"I understand your frustration," the Warlock Vanguard said calmly. "Information seems to get leaked when it is not supposed to. Anyway, what you heard is true. Your fireteam along with nine other teams are going to be apart of a frontier group. You'll be tasked mostly with patrol tasks, but you'll still do anything the Vanguard asks in terms of an assignment and take it as a priority over anything."

"I understand that, but why does practically everybody else know besides me? I was talking to Banshee-44 just a minute ago and he seemed to have a general idea of my mission when I was confused by all of what he said."

"What did he say? About your mission I mean," Ikora looked slightly uneasy.

"Not much. Mostly something about having to go to the Moon."

"Ok. So not much has been overheard," she said to herself. "Would you like to hear about the task now or tomorrow? You'll know soon enough, either from me or someone getting it from some sort of information broker or something."

"I'd like to get an answer now if at all possible," I responded almost in a demanding way, still unintentional.

"Alright, the jest is this. About four weeks ago, we sent one of the most powerful Guardians that we have, a Titan by the name of David Draksis, to the Moon to do some reconnaissance on a few places of interest. He came back yesterday to pick up some more ammunition for his store as well as supplies for his encampment. There was a check-in time set for every 6 hours. He hasn't responded to the last 4 times."

"So, he hasn't responded in the last day or so?"

"Well, one of them was because he was in the Tower, but as far as the reports are concerned, he never returned to the Moon."

"Do you think he went AWOL?"

"No, his Ghost sent an emergency relay just before he went dark. The coordinates were corrupted during the transmission somehow. What was salvageable said that he was near the Anchor of Light, the remnants of a comms tower that the Fallen raided during the Collapse. The coordinates may be a tad inaccurate, so give or take a kilometer or two. Your team's mission is to find Draksis and get him out of there. If he really did go completely dark, then the we all just lost a great soldier. You are set to depart around 10 am tomorrow morning. Please be ready to depart as if you are not there, then the back-up team will take your place and you forfeit your participation in the frontier program."

"I'll notify my team and be ready then."

I saluted and turned around, putting on my helmet at the same time. I attempted to get the team in a group chat, but only got in contact with Marshall Lee. I started walking in the direction of Arla's quarters to tell her myself if she didn't pick up after I finished telling Lee. This information could not wait until tomorrow.

"What's up?" he asked.

"We have a mission set for tomorrow. We're going to the Moon to investigate a Guardian whom Ikora suspects went dark after not checking in the last 24 hours or so."

"What was he investigating?"

"Some places of interest that she didn't say specifically. His Ghost sent some broken coordinates that led put him approximately at the Anchor of Light, an old base raided by the Fallen during the collapse. We launch at 10 in the morning. Don't be late. We have an opportunity that I personally do not want to pass up."

"You got it. I'll meet you at the hangar, bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 9:30."

"You have a tail?" I asked, perplexed by his statement.

"It's an expression," he responded with a laugh. "I'll see you later probably. If I don't, then tomorrow at the hangar."

I tried contacting Arla again, but failed. I was just exiting the lift when the comms cut off with a notice of connection failure. I took off the helmet and had it despawned. I walked down the hallway to the room that I recognized as hers, mostly by the number, but also by the sound of her voice behind it. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I would prefer not interrupt whatever she was doing. Whatever it was, she was extremely frustrated with someone or something.

"...I don't care if it was unauthorized! He needed to know...What? Were you planning to keep it a secret from the Vanguard? What did they do to you anyway?" Silence permeated the air for a couple minutes. "I understand that, but did you even try to check their motives? … Classified information, bull crap…Yeah, well get this. I renounced my citizenship almost three years ago because I didn't feel like serving a bunch of honorless fools who sit on their haunches, impartial to any threat that endangers anyone else besides yourselves. So why do you want me to abandon my duties as a Guardian, and why should I listen to you? … Well, I said that I renounced my ties to the Awoken and don't want anything to do with your petty war." Suddenly, the sound of mattress springs compressing was audible from behind the door.

I rapped on the door lightly, trying not to be too harsh with it despite my slight attitude of annoyance towards the Vanguard as well as the rumor-spreading rats that seem to be bent on ruining anybody's day and, possibly, their reputation. Arla sighed extremely loudly as I heard her get up from the mattress, muttering, "Who could it be now?" She almost literally threw open the door with a look of disgust etched on her face. She was wearing a brown tank top and black shorts, looking like she just came from the gym or something.

"Bad time?" I asked.

Her demeanor immediately changed upon realizing that it was me at the door.

"No Maximus. Just dealing with some personal business that needed attending. Please come in, take a seat."

"I could tell," I commented as I walked in and sat in the chair pushed underneath a small circular table closest to the wall on my right. I immediately regretted saying that.

"You eavesdropped on me?!" Arla practically screamed. She closed the door and pulled back her left hand in a way that showed she intended to slap me. She looked at my metal face and ultimately decided it was a bad idea.

"To be fair, you were shouting rather loudly," her Ghost said from the opposite side of the room.

"Not helping Stargazer," she snapped, turning towards the Ghost momentarily but then shifting her gaze back at me. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you were an Awoken citizen in the Reef and renounced your citizenship not too terribly long ago," I said as a sort of summary.

"Fair-weather friends if you ask me. I used to be just like them, unconcerned about any other issues other than the ones that threatened the Reef. I used to think of the Guardians as a sort of slave militia devoted to protecting a hopeless cause. I left because they aligned themselves with the House of Wolves, using them as a protectorate. They severed ties with the other Houses and Kells in turn from protection by the Awoken and a home to call their own. I warned them that the Fallen were just space pirates, but they didn't believe me." Arla sat down in a chair across from me.

"I left them there, renouncing my duties and citizenship with the Awoken. I was a freelance bounty hunter for about a year and a half. I know, not a very honorable job, but I vowed not to remain idle while darkness descended on the universe. At the end of that tenure, I met a lone Ghost in a long abandoned city 60 miles or so outside of the City. I left immediately afterward, believing it to be an enemy of some sort, but it followed me. Stargazer took over my ship and flew it directly to the Tower, where I have remained a Guardian for the last 19 months or so."

I sat silently a moment, leaning back in my chair. Arla broke the silence, "Judge me as you will. I did what I believed was right and stand by my decision to this day."

"No, no," I piped up. "I'm not judging you in the slightest. It's quite a story, better than mine really."

"And what would that be?"

"I witnessed the Collapse first-hand." It was her turn to sit there silent for a minute or two.

"How is that? That was so long ago. How have you survived this long?"

"To be honest, I didn't. I was a soldier in the Allied Earth Army for several years. In the reports, I'm guessing I was filed as KIA while defending the area around that Cosmodrome we were at not too long ago. I was knocked out while actually defending it and retreated to the masses begging to get in and climb aboard a ship out of there to another colony. Little did we know about their fates. I discarded my armor and disguised myself in a hooded cloak, but the Fallen arrived not long after I did. It was a slaughter. A Captain found me behind one of the abandoned cars and basically busted in my faceplate." Arla cringed slightly but still listened intently. "My own Ghost revived me probably a little over a week ago."

"I can only imagine what it's been like," she said with a twinge of sympathy in her voice. "You've witnessed so much in a short span of time. Are you alright to keep going as a Guardian?"

"I may not technically have what would be considered a heart, but underneath this metal is the heart of a soldier, and I won't stop until I fulfill my duties as one whether that means permanent death or total victory."

"I can relate to that and more power to you. So now that backstories are out of the way, what brings you here?"

I got out of my chair and pushed it back under the table. "We've been given an opportunity that I think would assist both of our causes. The Vanguard has placed our fireteam, along with nine or so other teams as part of a frontier program."

Her eyes seemed to grow brighter beyond their natural green glow. In fact, her face seemed to take on a glowing aura to it. She jumped out of her chair so quickly it fell onto the floor. Arla basically sprinted the four or five feet of space between us and threw her arms around me. I could feel the enormous amount of pressure she exerted on me. She cut off the embrace a few seconds later with a huge smile on her face.

"This is great," she exclaimed, a complete 180 to how she was not too long ago. "Does Marshall know?"

"Yes. I tried to contact you both earlier but only got him on the line."

"I was likely at the gym. I was in here for about 15 minutes talking with that secretary asking for me to return. I actually left the gym because of that call. This is amazing. When do we start with the new duties?"

"Tomorrow, we leave at 10. Marshall said he'd be at the hangar around 9:30 prepping his ship as we'll all be taking our own to the Moon. We've been sent to investigate a Guardian who supposedly went dark within the last 24 hours."

"I'll be there around the time Marshall is then," Arla confirmed.

She hugged me once again, and I left the room not long after. She practically seemed excited to risk her neck in extremely hostile territory. It occurred to me that I hadn't tested the Multi-Tool. I headed to the firing range and obstacle course in a door that lead from the hangar.


	12. The Dark Beyond

Chapter 12

The Dark Beyond

The next day, 9:27 a.m.

I walked over to Amanda Holliday at her shipwright station on the upper floor of the hangar. "Better day than yesterday, eh Maximus?" she said in a friendly manner

"You got that right. The rain finally stopped, but it would be preferred that these clouds go away," I replied.

"What can I do for you this morning?"

"I just need to get into the lower part of the hangar. You wouldn't happen to know where my ship would be?"

"Yes," the shipwright pulled out a tablet and tapped at it a couple of times. "Uh, yes. Your ship is just down the stairs to your right. You're the third Guardian to come to go to the bottom of the hangar in the last 20 minutes or so. Something happening that's so urgent?"

"Vanguard mission. You likely saw my other fireteam members."

"Ah, makes sense. Speaking of people coming to the hangar. Some guy in dark clothing stopped by and told me to install a warp drive in your ship. I did some diagnostics on it. It's one of the most powerful I've seen…"

"Does it work in my ship though?"

"Of course, it fit like a glove in the engine systems. Any idea who that guy was?"

"I don't know. You'll be one of the first to know if something goes wrong with it."

"I would think so as I do keep everyone's ships from falling apart." She opened the gate behind her table and showed me through. I climbed down the circular flight of stairs into the lower part of the hangar.

I counted about 15 engineers working on only a few different ships as I walked to my own. One had three of the workers fixing what looked to be blast marks in the armor of the ship. The majority of the workers were busy replacing a ship's engine. I pulled my helmet over my head and looked at the touch pad on my left arm. The HUD scanned it and put holographic panels on it; I tapped the one that said 'Open'.

The ship's door lowered, and I climbed aboard. The lights inside turned on, and the door closed. I set my weapons next to the pilot's chair and sat down for a moment. I took off my helmet and set it down on the floor next to my weapon. I tapped through various screens and authentications; I wanted to find out more concerning the specs of my ship.

The ship was still extremely basic, having only basic shielding and a singular arc cannon attached to the front just above the cockpit. The engines were significantly more powerful than I remembered them to be, but that was likely due to the new drive and possibly a little bit of fine tuning done by the staff. I got out of the chair and started walking to the back. "Starco, start the engine wind-up and unlock the engine room. I'm going to check something."

"You got it," he responded from the cockpit.

I quickly walked down the the hallway and stepped through the now-unlocked door. The path divided into two other corridors lined with pipes and a metal grate floor. Both engines were relatively silent, save for the whirring noise indicating the wind up sequence. At the end of the corridors, were small screens with various pieces of data scrolling on them. It wasn't fast scroll but by no means was it slow either.

Lines of information that were red originally turned green, some even turned yellow. I tapped the screen lightly. It immediately turned to a blue menu with several options on it. They seemed to be the various systems on the ship. Most had a green square next to them or got one as I observed the screen. Two had yellow markers next to them: 'Engines' and 'Fuel.' I hit the one that said 'Engines.'

The blue background remained but several more option bars pulled up with green next to them and one with yellow. I tapped the yellow one, and a notice popped up. "Warp Drive sequence added; Exotic Upgrade Detected. Energy output: +360%"

"That's interesting," I said quietly to myself. I tapped out of the screen and went to the fuel, following several menus with the same yellow marker. When I got to the final menu, titled "Fuel Efficiency," it gave a similar note. "Exotic Upgrade detected. Fuel consumption per hour: -180%"

I closed the screen and walked to the other engine's computer which gave the exact same results as the first one. By now, the whirring sounds were beginning to be close to a dull roar. I swiped the other screen shut and exited the engine room. I strolled back into the cabin where Starco was hovering near the pilot's chair. "Everything alright back there?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Just checking the new engine parameters and other information. Apparently, there were a few more upgrades than just a warp drive."

"Like?"

"Basically a full overhaul of the engines. Fuel efficiency is up dramatically as well as energy output. Either way, have you contacted Arla and Lee?"

"Did so when you went back there. They said they'd be prepped in just a few minutes."

"What about us?"

"Engines are warmed up and ready for deployment, just waiting for fan speed to be optimal and... well, that's about it to be honest."

"Good job," I said pleased with the efficiency that the ship had been prepped. Two dings sounded from the speaker system in the ship, and a notification popped up in the top left corner. I expanded the message via the console next to me; it was a group comm link originating from Arla's ship. I opened it up and saw feeds of both her and Marshall. Marshall was in his pilot's chair as well, half-asleep, while Arla's feed was some sort of camera. The appearance of her arms in and out of frame doing some sort of work to some electrical components and looking at a yellow screen alerted me that it was something on her suit.

"What's going on with your camera Arla?" I asked slightly confounded by the first person camera.

"Sorry, had some engine work and the microphones up front don't reach the life support room, so I had Stargazer connect the comms to my helmet."

"Interesting. Something up with the systems there?"

"Nothing much. Just an abnormal temperature reading, slightly cold, I'll have it sorted out in a…" She forcefully disconnected several plugs at the pause. "...minute."

I then turned my focus to Marshall Lee sleeping in his chair. "You awake Marshall?" I asked.

Not even a stir in response. "Marshall, is your ship ready for departure?" Still no reply. "Marshall! Wake up!"

He stirred in his seat a little bit, but started snoring rather obnoxiously. Arla suddenly cut in and yelled, "Marshall! Are you trying to fit the police stereotype?! If not, wake your butt up NOW!"

Still nothing. She continued yelling into the mic, but I was more focused on what happened on the Marshall's screen, but I saw his arm twitch that Arla must not have seen due to the things distracting her currently.

He gave a slight grin and stopped snoring. His eyes opened, and he busted into a full grin with a laugh following not far behind. "You think it fooled her?"

"What did?" I responded, surprised he seemed fully awake.

"The illusion of me sleeping. I put my feed into a loop and muted my mic to her as well as her to me.

I continued watching Arla's screen out of the corner of my eye. She slammed her fist into the wall, causing no damage, and shoved the plugs back into their places and closed the panel. She opened the door to the room and exited her ship. From what I could discern, Arla was not happy and stomping straight toward Lee's ship not far from hers. "I'd say it did," I replied turning my head to her screen.

"Then here comes the best part," he said with a grin. He suddenly went limp again and resumed snoring loudly. His arm moved again which meant he resumed his video feed. Marshall wasn't an exact carbon copy of the form he was originally in.

Arla stopped for a moment; she noticed the inconsistency in his position in his seat. The Awoken Huntress now calmly approached his ship and knocked extremely hard on the door of the ship. "Marshall Lee Thompson! This is no time to be slacking off or goofing around! You know that lives are at stake!"

The door to his ship opened and Arla sprinted inside. Lee was now eating what looked like a doughnut, leaned back in his chair. Arla's helmet picked up his front screen in his ship, showing my face only on the top right of his screen. Some of the blue paint on my head seemed to have chipped off, revealing the gray metal beneath it. Exo may have been ageless, but it certainly made me look "older."

Lee finished the confection and turned his chair around. The connection with his screen cut out as it lost track of his face. Arla stood over him probably burning with anger beneath the armor. "Good prank, right?" Marshall joked.

Arla simply sucked in a short breath through her teeth behind the helmet. She suddenly slugged him with her right fist. Lee fell out of the chair and onto the floor; Arla took out the knife and held it to his throat as he propped himself up against the gray wall near the chair. Lee now had a small cut on his cheek, likely from the punch.

"If I were still the person I was before now, I'd slit your throat in an instant," Arla basically spat. "This is not the time for jokes or slacking off. There is a Guardian on the Moon that needs our help, not your sleep. If you don't think that you can handle that Marshall, exit your ship now and Maximus and I will handle it ourselves."

He raised his hands in a surrender-type stance. "You got it. No more jokes like that on duty." She sheathed the knife and walked back to her ship, taking off the helmet (and cutting the subsequent feed), when she entered her ship.

I re-established a comm link with the other two; this time, they were all in their pilot's chairs either tapping away at something on the screen (Arla) or eating another doughnut (Lee). Noticing his mouth was full, I said, "Thumbs up if you're ready." I got an almost immediate response from both. I nodded. "I'll lead us out. Starco, lift if you please."

The sound from the engines became more intense. The ship lurched forward slightly but leveled out; I buckled the 6-point seatbelt. The ship hovered about 10 feet from the ground and made its way to the launch area. The blast shields raised behind me, but take off was delayed as Arla's purple ship took a position next to mine with Lee's red and blue striped ship hovering just behind hers. The robot at the end of the runway gave us the signal for full thrust.

What felt like a great weight "smashed" into me as Starco held nothing back; we sped through the length of the hangar in just a few short seconds taking a steep incline into the thermosphere and breaking orbit completely. The short hisses of the directional thrusters around the ship turned the ARCADIA back towards Earth. Arla seemed to be just breaking orbit with Lee just exiting the hangar back at the Tower. The white figure of the Traveler was so much smaller when compared to the size of Earth, but the power it held, I knew, was much more immense and capable, at least when it was in its original form.

It only took a few minutes for the other two to catch up just outside of Earth's orbit. The Moon was visible but extremely far off. My guess was that the warp drive was going to significantly shorten the journey "Everyone ready?" I asked.

"Affirmative," Arla replied confidently.

"Whenever you are," Lee said in a similar tone. Arla shot him a slight look, but he didn't react.

"Let's get going then."

"Comms will be unavailable in warp," Starco stated. "Closing channels." Arla's and Lee's faces disappeared from the screen almost immediately after. "ETA to the Ocean of Storms on the Moon: approximately 2 minutes."

The ship gave a sudden lurch and a slight grunt. An extremely high-pitched whirring sound eclipsed most of the noise in the cockpit. A swirling point full of vibrant greens, blues, and other colors filled the screen with a bright area at the center. The pressure the speed was exerting on my body was almost enough to keep me from moving.

Those two minutes felt like hours, either in anticipation of my first real mission or from what I expected of the Moon. The warp opened and deposited us about 400 meters apart from each other with me in the middle. The gray and cratered Moon was much different than what I remembered from pictures in various databases. It had three large, thin indentations near each other over on the left side of the screen. In essence, it looked like a giant claw mark of some sort, but I didn't think that's where we were going.

"Taking us down," Starco said. The ship dipped in angle towards the surface, and we started our descent.

We sat in silence for a minute or two as Starco worked on getting us to the area he called the Ocean of Storms. "Y'know, I used to look up here at night looking for any activity after we gave the Hive the Moon," he said, breaking the silence. "Never could detect much; it always had some sort of interference, as if it were underground."

"Interesting. You think that the Hive work below the surface?" I inquired.

"Doubtful. An entire Moon, and you only take over the bottom? Makes no sense to me. They're probably just in other parts that we haven't gone to yet." We once again sat in silence. In the distance, a large building appeared over the horizon. It looked like some sort of large pipe or flattened tube connecting to a square complex. It largely reminded me of a research station I encountered in the military in Canada, or at least what used to be Canada."

Starco spoke again. "You should probably get ready. There's a hill just below that station. A small encampment of sorts that marks where we should begin our search. I re-equipped my weapons and slipped my helmet on; I also checked that my cloak and armor were uncompromised and securely fastened.

Our three ships stopped momentarily above what looked like a few crates of supplies and a tattered red flag like the one on Earth. The door to the ship opened and I jumped out when Starco disappeared into the systems of the suit. I hit the ground standing up, watching the moon dust float away almost weightlessly. As an experiment, I jumped up and down a few times. Surprisingly, I seemed to go up just as high and fall just as fast as I did at the Tower and other places on Earth.

Confused, I consulted Starco. "What gives? I thought I was supposed to weigh much less on the Moon."

"Sorry, forgot to mention that the suit has automated gravity that is automatically set to equalize it to that of Earth. Almost everything else is weightless, but a Guardian floating off into space is not one that can help save the Traveler."

"Would've been nice though," Lee commented, landing just as I did moments before. Arla followed suit.

"Well, as I just said…"

"We heard what you said," Arla interrupted. "We need to draw our weapons just in case something decides to pop its head out.

I reached onto my back and pulled out the Multi-Tool, letting its systems connect to those in my suit and apply its immediate perks. I looked behind me and saw Arla and Lee draw Hard Light and SUROS Regime (respectively).

"So, what's the plan military-man?" Arla asked.

"Who me?" I asked back, confused by the statement.

"Well, being in that Allied Earth Army, you should know of something to do a possible hostage rescue."

"Says the bounty hunter," Lee smirked.

Arla grabbed his suit at the top of the chest piece, near the collar and pulled his helmet close to her. In a stern voice, she said rather harshly, "First, that is not my occupation anymore. Furthermore, I have renounced all my actions from when I did that, so shut it. Also, I wasn't exactly in the rescue business. In my old job, it was get in, shoot those in my way, and get out with whatever job done they needed me to do." She released him. "Now get it right."

Before Lee could respond, I started talking out what I thought the plan should be. "According to my Ghost, the Guardian was recently in that complex over there but not much else in the way of information after that. I personally think we should start there."

"Sounds good," Lee said in a seemingly harsh manner to Arla. She just sighed in disgust and likely rolled her eyes.

"Let's go," she said sternly.

Starco piped up as we were ascending the hill to the now-massive complex that sprawled out over the immediate area. "The Guardian reported some sort of previously unknown Fallen house here. No idea if they're still in the area, but it says that they are looking for something."

"Well then, let's keep an eye on our six," I said to the fireteam. The outside of the complex was completely empty with no sign of any recent activity that I could perceive. There was a doorway with thin, orange lights standing on the right side of it. I motioned for them to follow, responded to by nods.

We entered silently. Something wasn't right; it felt like we were being watched, but the radar was clear of any movement aside from Arla and Lee.

There was a wall in front of us splitting the area into two different ways to enter. I posted Lee on the left side and Arla on the right side at the corner of the door. "This equipment shows signs of Ghost activity. I'm going to investigate. Give me a sec." Starco appeared and floated away towards a computer console across the room. I looked around the room for other signs of any Fallen or the Guardian. I didn't find anything but spent cartridges from a sniper rifle and medium-sized shells.

"Find anything yet?" Lee asked, still marking the doorway opposite of Arla.

"Yes," Starco replied a second later. "I've found the location of his base camp. It's not far from here. He set it up in someplace called The Anchor of Light. An old Lunar base lost during the Collapse." When he finished, I could have sworn I heard the sound of engines in the distance. I was not mistaken.

"Fallen ships incoming!" Arla said from the doorway.

"Go loud. Scatter and clear the area," I commanded.

Arla leapt from her crouched position, exited and turned to the left firing at what I presumed to be enemies nearby. Lee did something similar except to the center of the area. I saw Starco disappear, and I also exited the room and turned to the right.

I immediately saw a pair of dregs trying to bull-rush me. I fired three shots at them from the gun. One of them got hit in the left thigh region and then the torso; the other took the third shot straight to the dome. Both toppled over dead. I spotted a Vandal sniping from the top of one of the smaller buildings nearby.

One shot took out half of my shield integrity. I ran towards the building, passing Lee in cover firing at a Captain and a Vandal and dodging two more shots from the Vandal. I fired a couple of shots, missing wide each time, as I ran. I leapt on top of the building and knocked the rifle out of two of its hands. It reached for a sheathed sword on its utility belt as I dropped my gun to the ground. I blocked the forearm of the striking arm with my own and released a melee on its torso. The Vandal was sent at least 5 meters off the building, ragdolling as it tumbled in the air and laying in a crumpled heap on the ground below.

I jumped off the ledge and entered a doorway in the building I was just on top of. I cleared out the Dreg and Vandal inside and took cover in the doorway. I ducked out every few seconds, firing 4 or 5 rounds in the direction of a Captain tailed by a couple Vandals. I slammed a new clip in and leaned out, getting peppered with incoming energy fire whenever I did so. The shields collapsed extremely fast. I summoned a grenade in my left hand, and swapped sides of the doorway, throwing the grenade as I did. I fired from the doorway once again, taking out another pair of Dregs in the process. My area was clear for now.

I took the opportunity to check in with Arla and Lee. "How's everyone holding up?" I said from the cover provided by my doorway.

"Center clear," Marshall said. "Moving in to assist Arla."

"I'm fine!" Arla insisted.

"So you call being under fire from two Captains, one of which is a Reaver, a Reaver Vandal and a Servitor, fine?" Lee said sarcastically.

"Been through worse," she replied while firing a number of shots at the enemy.

"Can we please stop fighting?" I inserted. "The battlefield is no place to settle a petty argument like the one you're having right now. We need to find that Guardian before the Fallen or worse do."

Arla grunted in pain from shots she took. I could tell her shields had fallen and the armor was now her only defense against incoming fire and the cold near-vacuum conditions. I ran from the area I was in to where I could see shots being exchanged between a singular figure and several Fallen forms. I jumped back on top of the small building and pulled out Civilian Applications. I spent all three shots in the clip on that purple Servitor, in the center of the eye no less. It basically exploded, leaving bits and pieces of its machinery scattered around the area. The Reaver Captain died a few seconds later as a result from a sniper bullet fired from Marshall, who was running towards her position quickly.

I could see Arla taking fire every time she ducked from the small piece of cover she had acquired up the hill not far from the complex. The remaining five units were a pair of Captains and the other three were Vandals. A couple of shots from Arla downed a Vandal not five meters from her. I loaded in another clip and quickly fired two shots at a Vandal. One hit its torso and the other nailed it in the helmet. I fired the last shot at one of the Captains, collapsing its shield instantly. Arla seemed to fire her remaining clip into the Captain causing it to fall back either injured or dead. Either way, it wouldn't be hurting us anymore.

By the time I put another clip in, the remaining enemies had been downed and were just laying dead or dying. "Area clear," Marshall said over the radio.

"Moving up and over to you," I replied. "How's everyone holding up?'

Arla replied first. "Shields got disabled but are currently replenishing. At 45% now and steadily increasing.

"Just below half, but recovering quickly. How about you Maximus?" Lee responded.

"I hit 80% because I was in cover mostly. Still a soldier on the inside I guess."

"Not bad for a first true mission, but it's not over yet," Arla said with a lot of focus.

I walked up just as she finished the statement. There were a couple of blast marks in her armor, but she wasn't bleeding, so all was well. Starco suddenly appeared. "Alright. here's the next place to check. It's an old colony base called the Anchor of Light. You'll know it when you see it."

"Let's get going then," I said.

It took us about 45 minutes on foot to get to the coordinates Starco had given us. A large metal tower sat in the middle of a few smaller buildings and concrete walls anchored to the ground. I saw a Fallen scouting party prowling around the area. Four Dregs and a Vandal. They hadn't seen us yet. "Snipers out," I ordered quietly. "Kill them quickly before they can call in reinforcements." I got a silent nod from Lee and a thumbs-up from Arla.

We each drew our rifles. I checked the clip in mine. Seeing that it was with its full three shots, I loaded it back into the gun. "Drop them quickly. On my mark."

We each aimed at the same time. I leveled my sights on a Dreg investigating a small building. He had just exited it when I got a clean headshot on him; Lee and Arla fired at their targets immediately after. The Fallen forces there didn't last more than 20 seconds and didn't even see their deaths until they arrived. The final one actually spotted us from a distance, but the Dreg took one between the eyes as soon as I looked back to tell his dead squadmates. I motioned everyone forward.

After we made sure there were no stragglers hiding we climbed up the partially destroyed Tower. We walked on what looked like a destroyed metal pillar that must have fallen a long time before, but provided the perfect path up without having to use our respective jumping abilities.

The room looked like it had been looted heavily. Thick cords hung from the ceiling and the only light came from outside. Various metal components were strewn about the circular room along with several spent cartridges and spent bullet casings. Dead Fallen were laying about.

"Must have been one intense firefight," Lee commented as he lifted up some of the rubble and looked for clues.

"You got that right," I commented also picking up some rubble and searching beneath it.

I could see Arla looking at some sort of computer screen out of the corner of my eye. She looked like she was trying to activate it, but resorted to hitting it with her fist a couple of times without results. Realizing she wasn't going to get any result out of it, she said, "Stargazer, search this computer."

The Ghost appeared and began scanning the computer. It booted up immediately as determined by the blue glow it emitted. Arla stayed over there looking at the screen. Lee and I continued searching around; he found the small mat that the Guardian had been supposedly sleeping on if that were even possible.

I moved on from the pieces I was sifting through and began lifting up a fallen pipe to see if he was (unlikely) crushed beneath it somehow. As I began lifting, I thought I heard a sound reminiscent of a knife being unsheathed. I ignored it, believing I was just hearing things in my head. I saw a slight blur of the light out of the corner of my eye creeping slowly towards Marshall; I stopped lifting and quietly unlatched the Multi-Tool. An extremity of the blur seemed to be raising slowly as to not make any noise to alert us of its presence. However, I had spotted it, and was about to strike. I put my finger on the trigger to shoot it, but suddenly my arm was seized by some unknown force. I spun around and unloaded four quick shots into the thing that grabbed my arm.

A Dreg, once clutching a dagger poised to strike me in the back, now stood holding its torso, and a few seconds later, fell dead at my feet. While that was happening, I spun around on the heel of my boot and unloaded just one shot at where the blur was standing still (in front of where a metal panel had once been, but now was exposed to the Moon beyond it). A Vandal appeared as soon as the shot hit, and it fell outside the window onto the ground below. Arla and Lee were just staring as I stood there with my gun pointed where the Vandal had just once been.

"Good gosh man," Lee said. "Those are some kind of reactions."

"That aside," Arla started, recovering from the shock of my shots rather quickly. "We found something. The Guardian's personal journal talks about someplace he calls the Temple of Crota. It's not far from here, and the last entry says that's where he was heading."

"Worth a look I guess," I responded. "Lead the way Arla."

We stood on a hill above a massive structure built into the side of a hill. The structure looked ancient but well preserved with massive doors shut tightly. Two green lights illuminated a part of the entrance. A few larger rocks could serve as cover should we need that, but there were no enemies as far as we could tell. After waiting a few minutes to see if there was going to be any threat, I decided to head down there alone. Arla and Lee agreed to stay here and snipe just in case something were to happen and I would need covering fire.

With a nod from both of them, I started walking towards the doors of the Temple with my gun at the ready. I noticed a crumpled form lying near the giant doors of the structure. "What's that?" I said forgetting being careful. I clipped my weapon on its strap and sprinted towards the form. Starco appeared ahead of me and beat me to the form in the dust. "I think this is who we were looking for," I said in honest disbelief. Ikora said that this was one of the most powerful Guardians they had at the Tower, but he was dead before me. I radioed Lee and Arla. "Guardian David Draksis is down. I repeat, Guardian Down." There gasps were extremely audible and full of disbelief.

"Should we come to assist?" Arla asked in a shaking voice.

"No, hold position," I ordered.

Starco finished circling the corpse. "No vital signs, but that's not the disturbing part. Where's his Ghost?"

I looked around for the floating form of one, but nothing but stars and moon dust surrounded us along with the doors. I saw some sort of figure up on one of the hills to the right of me. I continued staring straight at it as Starco moved up to investigate the doors ahead.

There was some sort of hooded figure holding a yellow rifle just staring at us from atop the hill. Arla's voice startled me, "Something wrong?"

I looked in their direction and then back at where the hooded figure had been. It had disappeared. "No, it's nothing," I said. "Thought I saw something, but I was mistaken."

"In other news," Starco interrupted. "We may want to move back."

"Why is that?" I asked. I had no sooner said that, when a light appeared in the crack of the door, and it began to open slowly. Recognizing the situation, I yelled into the comms. "Arla, Lee we have situation. Move up and prepare for a fight! We have enemies coming through the door!" I started moving back in small steps, drawing my weapon and checking the clip at the same time.

"Roger that," Lee replied.

The door opened and white unarmed creatures with gray on the tops of their heads began running straight at me. The helmet identified them as a 'Thrall' along with creatures in burnt orange armor holding some sort of weapon called 'Acolytes.' Behind them were two much larger versions of the Acolytes that were identified as Knights. One held a much larger version of the gun the Acolytes had, but the other held an extremely nasty-looking sword.

The Thralls came in for a head-on charge while the Acolytes fanned out. I began firing at the wave of Thralls charging at me. Arla and Lee's sniper fire took out the Acolytes firing at me from cover. The Thralls were kept at bay until I had to reload. In the few seconds it took me to do so, they had gotten within 5 meters of my position. I began running and firing behind me every so often. I also threw a grenade down that seemed to eliminate the rest of them from my trail.

I quickly checked myself from behind a nearby rock. There were several black marks from where the Acolytes had hit me as I was running, no holes though. I shoved another clip into the Multi-Tool and began focusing on the Acolytes. Unlike the Thralls who took one hit to kill, they took two or three.

After an initial volley from cover, I fired as I moved up from cover. I landed four shots into one enemy's chest while absorbed half as many. I took cover once again and killed a couple more Acolytes with Arla and Lee's assistance. It was more like Arla's because Lee was too focused on killing the Knight with the sword, which he did successfully. However, the Knight with the gun kept me pinned down with large and extremely potent orbs of light blue light that seemed to explode on contact with my cover. I turned around to flank it from the other side but was met with a much more dense light blue light.

I heard an explosion, and felt myself get lifted off the ground. How far, I couldn't say because the HUD turned completely black shortly after the blast. I suddenly hit a large metal wall and slumped over when I hit the ground. Still unable to see, I blindly searched around on the ground for my weapon. I crawled forward and felt something solid; I grasped whatever it was firmly hoping that it was a weapon. I heard a surprised gasp and quickly received a kick to the head.

It was an extremely powerful blow that caused me to stop crawling and let go of whatever the object was when it suddenly moved. I rolled over so that my back was on the ground rather than my face. I heard armor shifting and a voice saying, "You're interesting. Not very interesting, but interesting enough. Though, you'll do no good blind." It was more of an echo than anything. My head was suddenly tossed left and right due to something pushing it. Eventually I could see partially out of a corner of the screen. The vision started growing in size until I could make out a rag wiping across my screen with slight haste to it.

When it was clear and the HUD refocused, I saw an Exo's face in front of me with light blue, piercing eyes staring straight into mine. Whoever it was, the Exo was wearing a helmet with a clear mask, so I could purposely see the face. "Much better now," the female voice belonging to the Exo said. "Remember my face. We'll talk soon enough." In a flash of bright blue light, the Exo was gone and I was left staring at the space above me.

The stars started swirling, and I blacked out. I didn't seem to be out long as I was woken up with several shakes and the loud hiss of gases from within the suit. Arla's helmet-encompassed swirled into view. "Maximus!" she was shouting repeatedly and still shaking me.

I sat up, and the shaking and shouting ceased. My vision was still spinning and I held my head in my hands and shook my head. "What happened?" I asked confused.

"You got hit by a Cursed Thrall. Long story short, they're suicide bombers. You flew into the air, hit the Temple's wall and dropped like a rock onto the ground."

I started hearing the bursts of fire coming from the SUROS Regime. I lifted my head out of my hands and saw Lee taking cover by the doorway, leaning in and firing every couple of seconds. He was obviously taking several shots per attempt, but continued firing anyway. My vision cleared up, and I said, "No use in sitting here. Give me some cover fire. I'm going to move into there and see if we can find the Guardian's Ghost."

"You may want this though," Arla said forcing the MIDA Multi-Tool into my hands. She stood up and took cover on the other side of the door, firing whenever Lee was not. I grabbed my weapon and followed behind her.

"What's the situation Lee?" I asked in a commanding tone. I was not about to take anymore crap from enemies.

"Four Acolytes and a Wizard, actually a Witch, by the name of Vurok. The files say its from the Eir Spawn group of Hive."

"Focus fire on it from the front while I'm move in from the right," I ordered.

I moved in and they moved inside the doors taking cover behind some partial walls on the catwalk. A large circular pit with stairs leading down on the left lay beyond those small pieces of cover. I eliminated three Acolytes quickly with one shot to the head apiece. The other fell by Arla or Lee's gun as I leaned out from behind a pillar near a larger area. The area had a door immediately in front of me and some sort of contraption behind the large wizard in torn robes firing blue orbs of light from its hands.

"All fire on the Witch!" I commanded.

"Confirmed," Arla responded.

All of our fire seemed to do nothing to the translucent orange shield that surrounded the enemy. Suddenly, Lee grunted in pain. "Shield's down. Armor took some fire. Remaining in cover for the recharge," he said through likely gritted teeth.

Arla piped up next. "Our weapons are doing next to nothing to those shields. We need a better solution than this."

Starco piped up, "How about rockets?"

"Good idea," I said. I clipped the scout rifle onto my back and had Starco spawn in the Unfriendly Giant. I loaded the launcher quickly behind my small amount of cover. "Everyone, take out your rocket launchers now! We're ending this!"

I looked to where they were and saw that their fire had stopped. Instead, they were holding their rocket launchers, aimed at the Witch.

I aimed mine at it. Obviously not expecting this turn of events, the Witch hesitated. At that precise moment, I yelled, "ALL FIRE!"

One blue rocket, an orange rocket, and my purple tinted rocket raced towards the Hive spawn. It started to move out of the way, but was too late. All three rockets crashed into its body. The light emitted was so bright, I had to retreat back into cover so as to not overload my own optics and the suits.

When the light had stopped, all that remained of the once-mighty Witch was small gray ashes. A small light blue light flickered intermittently from the contraption.

"Arla, Lee, I found the Ghost. Going to get it now. Mark the area and shoot anything that moves other than myself."

"Of course," Lee acknowledged with a slight laugh. He seemed to be enjoying himself thus far, probably because he got to use his new weapon on something other than simulator enemies.

I moved forward quickly yet cautiously. I did not want to be neck deep in Thralls again. Nothing appeared as I approached the machine against the wall facing the entrance several dozen feet away. It was in a standard white shell with its eye flickering off and in a three-second cycle. Four clamps kept it in place.

I set my weapon down and gripped two of the clamps horizontal from one another. I began pulling with all my might as well as the suit's power assisting my strength. They held for a few seconds, but ripped off suddenly causing me to fall back a few feet in surprise. I then tossed the ripped clamps aside and pulled off the others without falling back. The white Ghost just stayed there motionless for a few seconds. The eye suddenly grew brighter, and it started to hover above the machine that had held it captive for countless hours. It shuddered about 2 feet above the machine. It shuddered again after another foot; it shook violently momentarily before disappearing completely in a short stream of light blue pieces.

"The Ghost is dead," Starco said as I just stared at where the Ghost had just been. "The machine drained it completely of its power. It lost its shell and most of its abilities and data; then, it just disappeared, taking the Guardian's being with it. I'm sorry we failed, but I did recover its last few minutes of memory before the Hive killed the Guardian and took it..."

"Not right now," I said quietly. "Relay the news to the Tower and see if we have any new orders."


	13. The Stranger

Chapter 13

The Stranger

The Tower wasn't enthusiastic about the news of the fallen Guardian, but they accepted his fate. Ikora said that his survival was only extremely wishful thinking. She asked if we were able to retrieve any data concerning his death. I could only tell her the truth, David Draksis had been completely outgunned. Though it wasn't gunfire that killed him; an energy shot hit him in the neck, collapsing his shields but also compromising his armor, and he suffocated. His Ghost couldn't revive him as the number of Hive cancelled out the light of the Traveler, and it was taken prisoner and placed in that machine.

I closed the comm link with the Tower and walked out of the Temple where Lee and Arla had sat down for a few minutes while I relayed the news. I picked up my weapon from the ground and put it back on its sling. I solemnly exited the Temple to where Arla was sitting against the wall of the Temple and Lee was examining the corpse of the dead Guardian.''

Arla, who had actually slumped a bit in her seated position, straightened up and asked, "So how'd it go?" Her voice revealed that she was still saddened by the death of the powerful Titan.

"They said that it wasn't pleasant to hear, but it was what they had expected with the amount of time that had passed since their last communication," I replied a little more confidently than hers, but not by much. I may not have known him, but losing a good soldier in battle is something I still have no idea how Humans and the Awoken deal with. We Exos are also affected, but we can store that data away and not worry about it any longer. Organic minds are much more complex as well as simpler.

At any rate, it wasn't wise to stand around waiting for something to get us. If they killed that Guardian, they could certainly kill us. "Let's head back to the Archer's Line. We'll contact the Vanguard again and possibly get more orders."

"Wait up a second Maximus," Marshall Lee said with curiosity in his voice.

"What is it?" I practically demanded. "There are likely Hive at the bottom of that Temple who can't wait to get a piece of us. I highly doubt that any of us could take on an army as supposedly large as the Hive. What we saw was likely not even half of a percent of their total forces."

"Yeah yeah, I get that. But that's also my point," he said eyeing the dead suit of armor that lay in front of him. He knelt down and was about to touch it when Arla snapped at him.

"That's a dead Guardian! You don't simply just take someone's armor from them and give them a burial in space."

"That's just it Arla! David isn't actually in the armor anymore," he rationalized. "Remember, Guardians bodies are taken in by the Ghost should the Guardian die in combat. Essentially, that's just a suit of battered armor on the ground before us. No use in letting good armor go to waste." Lee touched it. Suddenly, the red armor seemed to separate and fall apart into its individual pieces. They then disappeared in a flash of light.

Lee sat silent for a few minutes. "Oh, oh, oh...this is great!" he exclaimed.

"What is?" I asked.

"The dude had some of the toughest armor I've ever seen! Thick plasteel plating with a perfect balance of dexterity and plate thickness. According to Striker, the armor he had was the 'Astrolord Helm,' 'Heart of Order,' 'Ursus Tactical,' and the 'Armada Type 3.' All of legendary quality. Give me a second while I equip it.

About 30 or so seconds later, Striker appeared in front of Lee. A wide beam of light blue light steadily went over him from head to toe. As the beam passed by, the armor changed completely. It was almost as if there were a brand new Titan standing in front of us.

The helmet still covered his entire face, but there was a Y shape across the front of it and a rectangular piece sticking out of the right side of the helmet. The chest plate seemed standard but much thicker than his previous; it was one color on top and a different on the bottom with a small triangle in the center of the top of the piece. The gauntlets looked bulky at the wrist with the hand being almost bare. His rocket pods seemed to be strapped to the right pauldron, ready for use. The pants seemed a bit thinner in armor on the thigh area but more than made up for it at the shin and boot. Thick hexagonal plates encompassed the area just below his knees with heavy armor beneath it. The armor was all colored with what looked like a pale blue and gray version of digital-print armor. It was essentially small rectangles that varied in shades mostly for the blues but a couple of different grays were mixed in. It was a menacing appearance that gave him a look of power. Small arc bolts laced up the arm momentarily when Striker disappeared likely back into his suit.

Lee looked over himself. "Not bad," he commented in an extremely pleased tone. He moved his arms about and jumped a couple of times. The movement seemed natural without any extra effort behind it.

Arla stared for a moment, but stopped whenever I noticed. "Alright. Let's get moving," she said when she snapped back into focus.

"Lee, you take the lead. Arla and I will support you from behind," I said sternly. "We can't risk any more time here, or we risk all of our necks."

Lee sighed, but took the lead spot and started walking with the Regime out. Arla and I walked about 10 feet behind with our weapons drawn just in case something were to happen. We

We walked in silence for several minutes when Arla attempted to open a private comms channel with me. I put it through and stopped it immediately stopped all communication with Marshall. I was extremely annoyed with this. You should never lose contact with your lead man.

"What's so important that we have to cut off Marshall?" I asked harshly.

"I want to share something with you," Arla said flatly.

"We don't exactly have time for that, so if you could hold off…"

"It can't," she interrupted. The Awoken Huntress didn't speak for a second, but then seemingly gathered the courage to speak. "I wasn't completely honest about my backstory."

"How so?"

"You may not have known this previously, but every Guardian has at least one thing in common: we've all died. The only way of us actually being Guardians for the Traveler is to be dead for quite some time. All of my backstory is true; I just omitted the part about how I...well, my ship got shot down over an asteroid just outside the Reef just after the Reef cut off communication with Earth and the Tower. A Ghost found me somehow on that asteroid and called for a pickup ship. Once I climbed aboard, I refused any sort of knowledge I had about the Ghost when I entered the Reef as a citizen of the Awoken."

I stopped her there. "No need to justify it any longer, but I need to know something right now. Can I trust you? We have been given a high responsibility and can't hold secrets from each other. Should I bring Lee into this, so he can tell both of us if he hasn't told you."

"No," Arla refused adamantly. "He won't actually tell you as he believes its embarrassing." She paused for a second, likely never making sure that Lee couldn't hear our conversation as we walked along. "Have you ever heard of an ancient game called Baseball?"

"I've heard of it, not played it."

"Still a extremely popular pastime in the City. There are a few Guardians who play it with the locals every once in a while."

"Ok, so…"

"Either way, Lee was once a player in a minor league in the 2020's. He was considered to be one of the top prospects not only in fielding ability, but also in hitting and toughness. Archives have some of the news reports of his games in the back of the sports sections, at least in the newspaper from his hometown of Chattanooga. His team was playing for the championship in the year 2028. It was the bottom of the 9th inning, the last part of the game. Lee was playing centerfield while the tying run was on third base and the winning run was on second. If the next guy got out, then his team went home with a championship in their hands."

"But…"

"But nothing. The hitter put a good jolt into the ball, and it flew into center field. Marshall backed up to catch the ball but misjudged it a little bit. The ball hit him straight in the face and he toppled to the ground immediately. The ball fell into his glove when he reacted to the impact, but the damage had been done despite the victory. The ball hit him in the forehead with enough force to crush several parts of his brain, killing him in two weeks after going brain dead 12 days after the incident. The newspapers called it 'The Most Solemn Team to Ever Win a Championship.'"

Lee stopped ahead of us without us noticing until I bumped into him. "Which is why they renamed it Thompson Field and why I go under the guise of an ex-Police Marshall."

Surprised by his reaction to Arla telling me, I looked in the middle of the left border where the fireteam's names were located. The mute sign was no longer next to Lee's name; he must have disabled it whenever he noticed he was muted.

"If I may ask," I started. "Is that why you were so up front back on Earth when I landed?"

He sighed and turned around. "Look, you can trust me or don't, but we have to work together. The past is in the past and that baseball field is literally ancient history."

"I trust you Lee, but we can't keep secrets from one another. They can divide entire battalions, and in the face of literal life or death situations, the results are disastrous. I witnessed this first hand all that time ago in the Army." We started walking again.

The large pipe-thing of the Archer's Line was coming into view when Lee stopped again. He turned around but said absolutely nothing. Arla and I also looked back but saw nothing. The faint noise of some sort of engine was picked up by the suits, but I still didn't see any ships or anything else.

Suddenly, five vehicles resembling a sort of hovering bike came charging towards us at a ridiculous speed, covering the distance we had walked in 15 minutes in about 1. Lee pointed and yelled, "Pikes incoming! Sparrows out and find cover! Let's hope they work." He muttered the last part. 

"Wait, what?" I asked. However, my question came too late. Arla and Lee had already swung their legs over less armored and wedge-nosed vehicles. They flexed a fist, and the bike took off, speeding down the hill. I drew my weapon and fired a few shots at the lead Pike. The vehicle shrugged off the hits with minimal deviance from its path. Instead, it fired a stream of plasma bolts my direction. I rolled to the right and came back up in a crouched position.

A Pike peeled off followed by another and the others behind it until they were quickly circling me at a breakneck speed. The force from the speed of their bikes whipped up the moon dust, making visibility more limited than it would normally be. It wasn't a wall, but the terrain beyond it was fuzzy and practically indiscernible. However, I could make out that Dregs sat atop the vehicles with pistols on their belts. Whenever I noticed this, three of them took out the weapons and began firing at me in the center of their death circle.

I managed to roll away from most of the shots but also absorbed a couple of them, cutting away a third of my shielding. I was unable to fire as a second volley from the Dregs peppered more of my shielding. I threw a grenade at the edge of the circle. One of the Pikes broke off and careened off into one of the nearby hills, the lack of oxygen prevented an explosion, but the Dreg was most certainly dead. Taken aback by the casualty, I fired at the Pikes again. I'm guessing a shot landed near the energy tank of the vehicle as a small explosion erupted and threw the rider in the air. It landed not even a second later on the front of another Pike, killing it if it wasn't already dead.

I took a couple of seconds to reload when one of them peeled off. I fired a few more shots at the Dregs, killing one via headshot and injuring the other. The injured one lost control of its Pike and careened off into the distance and went speeding down one of the nearby hills. I spotted the one that "peeled off" and realized it was on a collision course with me only 15 meters away where my back had been turned just moments before.

I instinctively jumped into the air pulling the trigger as fast as I can during the frontflip I executed in the air. I landed hard on my feet, damaging the shields slightly but survived nonetheless. I stood up straight and turned around, swinging my rifle around as I did so. I saw that the Pike crashed into the same hill as the previous one and approached cautiously. I quickly reloaded as I approached the vehicle.

The Dreg lay dead on the bike with its face laying on the now-disabled control panel of the Pike. A small stream of blood ran down its back originating from the neck area. The creature was paralyzed permanently if it wasn't dead from the impact. As I was examining it, the Fallen unit moaned slightly; as an instinct, I put a couple more rounds into it, threw its weapon away and displaced it from the vehicle by a simple shove. I also shot the rest of my clip into the two Pikes that were crashed into the hill so nothing could use them to track my fireteam down.

I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched; then there was a crunch picked up by the audio sensors of the suit. I immediately reloaded and spun 180 degrees on my heal. Looking through the sights of my weapon, I saw the same stranger from before.

The helmet was completely dark this time, likely due to the Sun behind me with Earth off to the right. The blue hood she wore seemed to connect with a wrap that covered the left side of her upper torso. The rest was a suit of what seemed to be thin armor, but looks could be deceiving. I didn't let my guard down and edged forward slowly keeping my sights trained on her. A gold weapon was strapped to her back, but her hands hung at her sides as if the stranger was not threatened by my demeanor.

"Cut the act Maximus," she said. "I know you wouldn't shoot an unarmed civilian."

"You don't look like a Civilian with that gun strapped to your back, and, more importantly, how do you know my name?!" I practically yelled in a demanding voice. I stopped moving about 5 meters from the stranger.

"Compared to the things I know, your memory storage is empty," the hooded stranger said with a slight act. "Now, drop the weapon."

"How about I don't."

"Then, I'll disarm you. It's all the same to me. You won't shoot me, and I won't shoot you. That's the deal I'm laying before you Maximus," the female Exo said confidently.

I lowered the weapon slowly but kept it in my hands, but she wasn't fooled of my suspicion. "Now holster it." I complied hesitantly. I was being ordered around by a complete stranger. This hadn't really happened since the first day of military work, but that was because I knew nobody then. This was a different situation in the middle of enemy territory. I kept myself leaned slightly forward with my left hand behind my back and my right growing an orb to a size slightly smaller than my hand. If she got close, then I would melee her away from me without a second thought.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Last I checked, you're the one with the disadvantage and not really able to ask the questions here." The stranger started walking towards me and stopped about two feet in front of me. She did nothing besides place her hands on her hips and start circling me. "As I said before, you are extremely interesting, not to me, but to who I work for."

"Frankly, I don't care who you work for. I don't work for profit. I work for the safety of those in the City…"

"Don't make me laugh. The idiots in that City are barely even aware that they could die at any point in the near future. All they do is rush from something stupid to another stupid thing and then nothing until the next day. They have nothing on what we do! Why's it worth saving?"

I thought for a moment and then decided on my answer. "Because I died long ago not only for those who wanted to escape Earth…"

"And die soon after."

"... and for that City that still stands today against any darkness that comes against it."

"Don't be so stoic. You are listening to the part of you that was erased so long ago before you and I were manufactured."

I grunted in anger. I was doing everything in my power not to brutally mess up this stranger. She was irking me in every possible way right now.

She continued circling me. "By the way, your grenade won't work. I can see it in your hand. Throw it down and watch it just lay there."

Oh, I threw it, but it wasn't at the ground. I threw it at her once she came back in front of me. The Exo stranger caught the silver grenade effortlessly. She was right that it didn't activate. She then proceeded to look down and laugh for several seconds.

"In five seconds Starco, I want you to put a double charge of power in my left hand," I whispered.

"You got it," he said in the suit.

The stranger was still laughing. I expanded the orb while she was looking down and meleed her. She dropped the grenade the instant she flew back into the hill opposite the one with the Pikes beneath it. Her body crashed into the hill and then the ground; I felt the charge build up in my gauntlet. I grabbed the grenade and threw it at where she lay.

The grenade glowed bright purple in the air and activated its miniature void on contact. The stranger seemed unaffected by it however. She stood up and put both hands on opposite edges of the created void and simply pushed against the sides; she then expanded her hands. A loud crack of particles colliding rapidly still filled the lack of air extremely quickly. The stranger then walked back with the same confidence as before as if the melee had done nothing. She was laughing again and dusting herself off as she approached me again.

She came within a couple of feet of me and said, "That's the intensity I was looking for. Honestly, we need more people like you."

"I don't plan on working for or with you," I retorted sternly.

"In due time, you'll understand what I'm talking about."

I wasn't going to mess around anymore. "Who are you?" I demanded reaching for my weapon. She turned around and took a few steps before facing me again.

"To you, nobody."

I fired the Multi-Tool once just to the right of her booted feet. "That was a warning. I won't miss the next time. Now, answer the question: Who are you?"

"As I've said, you're interesting to those whom I work for. We will meet soon. Come to these coordinates at 12:30 Tower time on Venus, but come alone. I'll be waiting. By the way, do NOT mention any of our conversation to anybody, or I will be forced to kill you and your team members myself." With that, the stranger disappeared in a flash of light similar to that of a Ghost's.

"Who was that?" Starco said after I stood there silent for a minute or two.

"To be honest, I don't know. With that remark, I'm guessing you couldn't get an ID on her?"

"I wasn't able too, but there was something odd about her. She had no light subliminally emitting from her. Either she's a Guardian who lost her Ghost, which there are only a handful of cases and they're all dead, or she isn't a Guardian at all."

"Let's not make assumptions," I suggested.

"Agreed."

I established a comms link with Arla and Lee. "Have you two contacted the Tower for further orders yet?"

"Maximus? Is that you?" Arla questioned over the comms. "We've been trying to reach you for several minutes now."

"Yes, it's me. Did you contact the Vanguard?"

"We did," Lee said. "They want us to report back to the Tower immediately."

"Where are you guys now?"

"Orbit," Lee said.

"You left me here?!" I practically yelled.

"We honestly thought you got away on your Sparrow," Arla added.

"What's a Sparrow?" I asked.

"Oh…" Lee trailed off with a guilty tone. "We'll explain later."

I sighed. "Well, the deed is done, and I'm still alive somehow. I…" I almost told them about the Stranger but stopped myself just before I did.

"'I...' what?" Arla questioned. "Remember, we promised not to keep secrets from each other."

"I was going to say that I only have three clips left, so it's good that we're going to the Tower." The statement was completely false, but I needed to cover my stuttering. I could see the ship above me descending slowly, blowing the moon dust around me. I glided up into the open door of my ship once it was a few feet above my head and joined Arla and Lee in the orbit above the Moon.


	14. Public Relations

Chapter 14

Public Relations

I powered up the around 10 o'clock in the morning. The walls were still the green color with the yellow-gold insignia on the wall. Though, I hadn't started up to my own liking; my audio sensors had picked up a noise that was out of the ordinary. Once everything was calibrated, I could hear the noise for myself; it was a knock at my door. I stood up, hearing the servos and other parts in my legs click as I moved due to the inactivity of the night. Somebody knocked again.

I got to the door and opened it. Arla and Lee were standing at the door in some garb that I had never seen before. They were both wearing an orange button-up shirt with red block lettering saying, "Sunsingers" with cartoon sun at the end of the word with an intimidating face on it. They also wore a cap of the same color with the same logo on top. Their pants were a plain white color with red cleats. Lee held four wooden bats slung over his shoulder, and Arla was holding three leather gloves reminiscent of baseball gloves with the netting between the thumb and other fingers. Lee was holding a large white box in the hand that did not have the bats.

"Morning Maximus!" Lee said in an excited tone.

"Good morning Lee," I said to the both of them. "What are you two doing here? Do we have new orders from the Vanguard?"

Arla stayed silent, but Lee picked up the slack. "Not in the way that you would think."

"I'm sorry. I don't get it." I responded and looked at Arla who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and an indignant look on her face. "Where are we going, regardless?"

"The City."

"For what though? Are they rioting or something, and why are you two dressed like that?"

Arla interrupted ferociously. "Because the Vanguard want us to help with relations with the citizens of the City! Us and 8 others are going to play baseball with them in three hours."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You do realize that I've never played right?"

"I know. That's why we're going to the field early, so I can teach you," Lee said, still excited.

"What about Arla?"

"He taught me last night," she said, still frustrated. "I don't get why we have to do this though. We should be out there…" Arla pointed to her upward right. "...fighting against the darkness. Not dressing up in orange and hitting a ball all over a grassy field. It brings us no closer to victory…"

Lee interrupted. "...But it does allow us to make a few non-Guardian friends and play an extremely popular yet ancient game. Lighten up Arla!" He wouldn't stop smiling. "By the way, these are yours." He shoved the box into my torso.

"I'll go change then." I shut the door and opened the box. Inside was a similar orange jersey and hat as well as red cleats and white pants. I looked the uniform over and saw that my name was in white letters (all caps) on the back, "MAXIMUS" with a large 36 in a similar font on the back. I had to manually put them on but ran into no trouble doing so. It fit well and left my hands and most of my arm exposed which felt strange to begin with as I had not worn a uniform like this for some time. I put the hat over my head and headed out the door.

We took a lift to the public transportation that would take us to the City. The hovering bus stopped in front of a large stadium that, upon entering, had seating in an arc shape. Red clay led up to four white bases arranged in a diamond pattern surrounding a small clay hill in the center with a white rectangular thing in the center. The base at closest to the center of the arc in the seating was pentagonal, but that was the only difference between the others. I stood on that base and looked out at a large field that seemed to grow wider as I looked farther out. A green wall stopped it with two tall, yellow poles at each side near the end of the bleachers that extended outside the field of play. A large holographic screen was powered on out in the left part of the field.

Lee tossed me a bat. "Ok, stand in one of those boxes, bend your knees, hold the bat in two hands, and keep your elbows up," He said.

I did so. Arla walked over to me and pushed my elbow up a little more. Lee continued, "Good. Now face me, step forward as you swing the bat. If you do it right, then the bat will come level as it comes over the plate. When I say 'Swing,' do it, drop the bat, and run around the bases as fast as you can. Get me?"

Lee walked over to the mound in the middle of the inner field. I nodded to him, and he pulled out a stopwatch. "Swing!" he yelled. I gave the bat a quick swing and threw it to the right as I darted off towards the first base on my right. I hit it with my foot and changed direction towards the second base without losing speed; I did the same with the second and third base. I tapped the last plate where Lee and Arla stood waiting. As soon as I tapped it, Lee stopped the stopwatch.

He looked down at the number, and gasped. "Holy crap! 13.7 seconds! Maximus, I haven't seen anyone run that fast around the bases since, well, no one. I want you playing Centerfield." He pointed to the middle of the outer part of the grass. "Out there. You'll be catching any fly balls that come your way. Don't be afraid to run after one in order to get the out. Now, let's explain the rules."

The rules seemed simple. 9 innings with a hitting and defensive chance for each team, three outs per inning. Lee explained that my main goal was recording the out in the outfield and throwing the ball as fast as I could to the infield to prevent any runners that may be on the base paths. Super simple it seemed. He also taught me how to hit and not to swing at things that looked to be below my knees and above the letters. 4 balls will send me to first base without having to swing the but, and 3 strikes will send me to the dugout and wait for 8 batters and a couple of other parts of innings until I get another chance, so 'make the best of it,' he said. He also warned that it was the umpire who ultimately decides what's a ball and what's a strike, so I need to be aware of the count.

I felt like I knew the game well enough, but only time would actually tell whether I could do this or not. We practiced for another hour, actually hitting the ball and fielding it. Lee could smash the ball quickly and far, clearing the wall about 40 feet behind me often whenever Arla threw the ball to him. Arla could make the ball just drop into what Lee called the "outfield" without any special effort whatsoever. Whenever I wasn't busy chasing the balls in front of me or clamoring over the fence to get the ones Lee crushed over the fence, I was getting underneath the ball and securely gloving it.

I didn't get a chance to hit the ball though before people started filing into the stands and about 14 people in white jerseys and pants with green hats and green lettering on their jerseys spelling out, "Cosmos."

Lee signaled me in and we went into one of the dugouts and into a locker room behind a cleverly disguised door covered with part of the wall decorated by several iterations of our logo and name. I followed him to a fully carpeted room with tall but not necessarily wide lockers with our each of our names on them.

I walked around the circular locker room and looked at each of the names. Each name had one or two letters as well as their jersey number by it before actually having the name. Our team consisted of: P 78 Edward Smith; RP 23 Max Gallagher; CP 4 Advira Mezzer; C 22 Aeol 1B 50 Layma; 2B 2 Yogameyer Zealouin; SS 63 Arla Nublier.

I stopped for a second. I just realized that I never knew Arla's last name. When I turned around from looking at the lockers, she was talking to another Awoken female standing by the locker that belonged to Advira Mezzer. Nublier with the number 63 beneath it. That was her. There was also something about the one named Layma; it seemed extremely familiar for some reason.

I continued circling the lockers: 3B 14 Tony Ansley; LF 77 Lee Thompson; CF 36 Maximus; RF 90 Draklin. Judging by the names, we were a mix of Humans (4), Awoken (3), and Exo (4). Everybody filed in over the next 20 minutes or so, and the noise of the crowd began to grow louder and louder by the second.

We sat around talking to one another (I sat on a chair in front of my locker talking to Draklin who had the locker next to mine. He was an Exo colored red with a full faceplate and white eyes. Draklin also had a white stripe across his face, from the top of his left eye to about mid-cheek on the right side). Lee stood up on a bench in the middle of the room and caught everybody's attention. "Guardians!" he yelled around the room. Everybody looked his direction. "How are we doing today?" A cheer swept over everybody with a few raised fists. "Are we ready to kick some butt?"

"Yeah!" practically everyone responded.

"Good! Now keep that fire. Here's the order I'm going to submit to the umpire so listen up I've got Ansley followed by Draklin and Zealouin with myself batting clean-up. Maximus will bat fifth followed by Nublier and Layma. That means that Aeol will bat 8th followed by whomever is pitching which is Smith to begin with Gallagher in relief and Mezzer in closing." He looked at the Awoken Arla was talking to just a moment ago. She was an inch or two shorter than Arla with blue skin and deep red hair combed over part of the right side of her face. Mezzer nodded to him.

A new voice inserted itself from the door to the dugout. "Well, it's game time. Show no hesitation." It was a proud voice belonging to an extremely muscular human that filled out his jersey extremely well.

Lee spoke shortly. "You heard Lord Shaxx. Let's get going!"

A loud hurrah bounced off the walls of the locker room. We grabbed our stuff and started filing out. I tucked in my jersey and grabbed the bat I had been using earlier as well as the helmet that was hanging in the locker. It had my name written on the back, but that was the only difference between it and the hat; the color and logo were the exact same. It came down around where a human ear would be on the left side with the right lacking the attachment. I shouldered the bat and was about to walk out when Arla tossed me the leather glove I had been using earlier. Apparently, I had left it on a bench. I then left the locker room.

All of the other pregame festivities had already taken place; we shook hands with the citizens who were the elite of the City's Sector League. The starters were a mix of five humans of varying heights and looks. After that, we grabbed our gear and headed out to the field.

Lee, and I started walking out to the outfield when the red-faced Exo Draklin caught up to us. We stopped around the place where I would play center. "Let's get it done," he said in his low bass. We exchanged fist bumps and separated to our zones.

The game started a short time after. A black-faced Exo with red eyes flashed onto the scoreboard with the name Aksyll. After working a 2-2 count, the leadoff batter for the Cosmos was retired via strikeout (looking). An upside-down K appeared not only underneath the player's name but also underneath Smith's. The next batter took a first pitch strike but responded by hitting a ball lines right at the Purple Exo standing at first, Layma was her name if I remembered correctly. She gloved it with quick reflexes.

The next batter worked a 3-2 count and laced a hit down the right field line. I ran over to serve as a cutoff man but that wasn't needed. Draklin threw it to the Arla covering 2nd base as the batter had a stand-up double. Smith then threw a wild pitch that bounced away from the batter, letting the runner at 2nd to get into 3rd quickly and easily.

The fourth batter in the lineup didn't take any pitches. He hit an extremely powerful ball straight into my zone. I moved a couple steps back and to the left to get under it. The ball fell into my glove with quite a bit of force on it. The three of us started walking to the dugout when the umpires gave the signal that he was out. Lee trotted along beside me as we approached the dugout. "Throw the ball into the crowd," he whispered. Realizing I still had the ball, I took it out of the glove and tossed it lightly into the stands for whomever could get it first. It was then that I realized that the stadium was sold out without even standing room near the top.

I descended the stairs and sat down next to the purple Exo that I now know was going by the name of Layma. She had bright yellow eyes and a smooth face plate. "Name's Maximus. And you?"

"Layma, Huntress. And you?" Her voice was a soft, upper alto.

"Warlock."

"Hmm." We sat silent for a minute, but she broke the silence. "Would you mind showing me the orb that Warlocks are said to be able to create."

Surprised by the question, I responded, "Uh, uh. Sure, uh, no problem." I held out my right hand and unclenched a fist after forming one a second earlier. Nevertheless, the pale blue-white orb popped up and floated in my hand at a size just smaller than a baseball.

"That's amazing," she said. "Pure energy that you can control."

"What about you? I've heard that Hunters and Huntresses can turn invisible." I asked, dissipating the orb and then turning to face her. Layma was gone completely. There was a laugh that sounded like her coming from my left. Her form suddenly appeared on my left after a second.

"You mean like that?"

"Exactly." Suddenly, I saw the Awoken identified as Zealouin descend the steps with a smile on his face. He high fived Lee as he left approached the batter's box. I stepped up to the fence that divided the dugout and the field. Currently, there was a man on third and two outs on the board. Lee looked completely comfortable up there, as if his experience all those years ago had never happened. He took a cut on the first pitch but only caught air. The next two pitches were balls low and to the right of the strike zone (respectively). He took another strike and checked his swing for Ball 3. Lee then fouled off three pitches in a row; the pitcher was looking extremely annoyed with his current situation on the mound. He must have known that throwing 8 pitches to a batter with a runner on third was not a good idea. He reared back and threw a ball that looked like it should have been a straight drop from the strike zone; the only problem was that it hung just a bit too long.

Lee crushed the ball and ran towards first base. The ball carried to straightaway center, but died just in front of the wall. Had it been in any other part of the field, it would've cleared the bases. Either way, Lee stopped running in between first and second and came back to the dugout.

The next half inning was the pitcher striking out the side in a total of 12 pitches. After the other team was done warming up in the field, the PA announced my appearance to the batter's box. I had just grabbed a bat and ascended the stairs when he started. "Now making his baseball debut is an ex-Allied Earth Army Captain, now a Guardian with the Tower continuing to serve the public. Please welcome Centerfielder number 36, Maximus!"

Cheers rose up from around the sold-out crowd. I lifted the helmet off my head and held it up. As I approached the batter's box, I placed the helmet back on my head. I got serious and took my stance, staring down the pitcher the entire time. He gave a slight smirk in response. The pitcher reared back and threw a straight pitch that went straight past me without a single twitch on my end. It was above the letters and too far to my right. "Ball 1," called the umpire behind me.

The pitcher threw another. This pitch looked to be straight down the middle; I took a strong hack at it but only whiffed at air. As I swung, the ball had seemingly moved away to the left almost in what looked like a sliding motion. I stepped out of the box momentarily and took a few practice half-swings. The scoreboard identified it as a Slider clocked in at 87 mph. 1-1 count and the next pitch was another strike located in the bottom inside corner, something I was not about to cut at. The scoreboard classified it as a 12-6 Curveball clocking in at 84 mph. I had to defend with 2 strikes. The next pitch was near the letters, but I took a swing at it and heard a resounding crack.

I dropped the bat and sprinted to first. The ball dropped just in front of the left fielder leaving me to just stay at first base rather than risk getting out. The man dressed in a similar uniform paused play and took me by the shoulder. He pointed across the field to an Awoken man dressed just like us inside a rectangular box. "See him over there?" he asked.

I nodded.

"If he grabs his belt, take two lateral steps off the bag, and when the pitcher moves his arm back to throw, sprint over to second. You're going to steal that base; we need to get on the board early. Lee told me about your speed. Good luck." The 1st Base Coach stepped back in his box and I stepped onto the base. The Coach across the field did indeed hold his belt, indicating a desire for me to steal. I continued to look at the pitcher, waiting for the time to break away. The pitcher took a started his wind up, looking dead at me; I froze momentarily as he stared straight at me with the first baseman just to my left. The pitcher turned his head back towards the batter.

His knee lifted up and I sprinted immediately. The sound of the ball landing in the catcher's glove was loud enough to be heard above the noise of the crowd cheering as I now stood on second, clean I might add, with the catcher not even attempting to throw the ball. The first and third base coaches were clapping ferociously at my success. The pitcher caught the throw from the catcher and shook his head.

I looked at the batter. I hadn't noticed that it was Arla at the plate. The next pitch was outside making the count 2-0; the third pitch missed as well. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing up there. The pitcher did his wind up and delivered a pitch that seemed a bit slower compared to the previous few pitches. Arla took a powerful-looking swing at the ball and made an extremely loud contact that sent the ball racing down the third base line. It crossed over the foul line after passing third base, and there was no call for a foul ball except by the third baseman and several other players on the other team. Meanwhile, I dashed around third and headed straight at home plate. I touched it without any trouble. When I looked back at the bases, Arla was standing on second with a huge smile on her face.

The rest of the inning was a strikeout, followed by flyout in deep center where Arla tagged 2nd base after the catch and dashed into third. Smith, the pitcher, strolled into the batter's box and took a third strike looking.

I caught two more pop flies in the shorter part of my zone, but nobody scored after 2 more innings. In the bottom of the 4th inning, I walked into the batter's box again and worked a 2-1 count. I had been studying each batter this pitcher faced. He had been keeping almost everybody guessing, now having 4 strikeouts to his credit while Smith had only 2.

Waiting for the 2-1 pitch, I stared at pitcher and at the empty base paths. The scoreboard still said 1-0 with a giant 4 indicating the inning and the two outs in this part of the inning. We had 4 hits while the Cosmos had 2 to their credit. The pitch came a few seconds later. It made a slow arc to the outside part of the plate; it looked to hit the upper half of the strike zone as well. I gave it a hack with a slight upward motion to my swing (on accident). The ball soared away from where I stood. I didn't take too much time to admire it and tossed the bat, starting my run towards first.

I glanced at its direction again and saw it was going to drop just in front of my counterpart on the opposite team. The human playing that position made a forward dive at the ball, but came I empty. It was a mad scramble for the ball as the Right Fielder and Center Fielder sprinted over to where it lay. I rounded second just as the Right Fielder picked it up and threw it into the infield, but it was too late. I was standing on third getting a high five from the coach standing there laughing. "Are you sure you've never played baseball before?"

"Positive," I replied.

"Either way, keep doing what you're doing, and we've got this series in the bag."

"Series?" I asked slightly confused by the statement.

"Yeah, we're playing five of the City's top teams. Don't worry about it; just keep doing what you've been doing and remember to be aggressive. These people love their baseball win or lose."

The conversation ended there as Arla began her at-bat After working a full count, she smacked one into center field for a single, meanwhile I came around to score easily. The dugout was full of smiling faces, high fives, and slaps on the back when I descended the stairs. I wished Layma good luck as she grabbed a bat and helmet and trotted out to do her at bat. She walked on five pitches. Despite Arla's and hers efforts to get on base, Smith struck out and ended the inning.

I tossed Arla her hat and glove as she came into the dugout for her fielding stuff. She gave me a hard pat on the back with a smile on her face as she took her position, and I walked into centerfield.

Nothing major happened the next few innings. I caught three more routine fly balls and grounded into a double play when I chased a slider out of the zone but made contact. It was in the 8th inning when the bases got loaded with two outs. The Cosmos had managed to get a run across just before Shaxx pulled Smith from the mound.

Gallagher had done a decent job to in his 1.2 innings pitching. He'd struck out 4 of the 5 batters he got out, but surrendered a single followed by the runner stealing a base and another single. A double play got the two outs but the original man on base was now sitting comfortably at third waiting for a chance to tie the game. He may get his chance as Gallagher seemed a bit shaken on the mound. He walked the next batter in 8 pitches (she fouled off quite a few) and accidentally hit the guy after her in the foot with a curveball that seemed to slip.

At this point, Shaxx came out onto the mound to talk to him. Mezzer didn't come out of the bullpen, but I did hear the sound of a baseball smacking into a glove. She was warming up and would definitely be coming out the next inning regardless. His words did nothing it seemed. The first pitch that Gallagher threw was a fastball that seemed to have no effort behind it. The batter drilled it to straightaway center. I ran to get underneath it but it seemed that I wasn't going to be able to, and I was running out of field. I did the only thing left that I could do: I jumped onto the wall just as the ball arrived. I caught it with the very top of my glove, but there was only one problem that went with the ball. The glove went with it over the wall. A Grand Slam. The batters trotted around the bases fist-pumping and cheering extremely loud. The score was now 5-2 with us in a losing spot. It was a mad house at home plate as the three baserunners and the hitter celebrated for several seconds before returning to the dugout with more cheers to come.

It was embarrassing climbing over the wall to retrieve the glove as well as the ball; I needed a way to redeem myself after basically costing us the lead. The next guy grounded out, and the one-swing nightmare ended quickly.

We went down 1-2-3 in the next half inning leaving the score 5-2 in favor of the Cosmos as we entered the 9th inning and end of the game. I checked the clock just before leaving the dugout to the field. It was just past 2:30, but I had no idea when the game actually started. My guess is that it started around noon, but that wasn't my biggest concern. I grabbed my glove and hat and took to center field as Mezzer started warming on the mound. She looked determined, almost angry, but that may be what we actually need to get out of this.

Though this wasn't what Lee called a "save" situation, I agreed with Shaxx's decision to hook Gallagher. He wasn't going to last too long, if any time at all, before giving up more runs. At any rate, the Cosmos continued on their momentum as if they had never played defense in between. They got a quick double after depositing the ball into right field, but keeping the guy at second. Then I noticed something; we had a problem. If that guy scored, then they would go up by four runs and the game was practically sealed, though the it seemed to be won handedly anyway.

The catcher, Aeol, got up from his squatting position and came out to talk with Mezzer momentarily. Arla also moved to the mound at the same time. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was likely words of encouragement to finish this thing off. With a couple of nods, they returned to their positions and prepared for the next pitch.

It seemed to work well initially. The first pitch was a fastball hitting the bottom inside corner at 98 mph. The second pitch was called a screwball dancing outside of the zone, but swung on and missed nonetheless. Next was a changeup below the knees followed by a fastball in the upper outside corner. It looked like a strike three, but was called a ball. Mezzer threw a ball into the dirt that was stopped by the catcher, so the runner had no chance to take third. The only problem about the play was that the runner took off for third just as the pitcher lifted his knee to throw. The throw didn't go home, but to second, behind the runner, allowing there now to be a baserunner on third. A deep fly ball could basically end this now.

The next three pitches were fouled off into the still-packed stands. The ninth pitch of the at-bat looked like a fastball straight down the middle. The batter gave it a good jolt that lifted it a good distance in the air, however it wasn't that deep. The runner immediately retreated to third base and waited for the catch. The shallow ball was in my zone; as soon as I predicted its course, Draklin and I started sprinting towards its position.

Neither of us were going to make it to the ball in time, but I thought I had a good line on it nonetheless. I bounded forward, leaving the ground completely, just as the ball was about 8 feet from the ground. When I heard it hit my glove, I took no time to marvel in the successful attempt; I pulled myself in and somersaulted to where I was back on my feet. The runner, not noticing I was back on my feet, tagged the base and started heading home.

I grabbed the ball from the glove and reared back, getting as much power as possible into the throw. The ball left my hand with immense velocity without much height, but the runner was already halfway to home. The ball was covering ground rapidly. Aeol caught the ball just as the runner broke into a slide for home. He turned and made a sweeping tag at the runner's foot. They crashed into each other as the tag was applied.

The umpire took a moment to sort out the tangled mess of two bodies at home. He didn't take too much time to make his decision though. Aeol had held onto the ball. He made an arm motion as if slashing the ground with his fist. Suddenly, I was tackled to the ground by Lee. He was cheering so loudly I couldn't even hear the crowd erupting in cheers. Draklin walked over to myself and Lee and pulled him off of me. He extended a red hand towards me and pulled me up. "No time for celebrating yet. We're still down three runs." Lee hung an arm around my shoulder continuing to cheer the entire time we were walking to the dugout.

The bottom of the 9th. I'd heard and read so many things about what people either did or dreamed of doing with their team behind in the bottom of the 9th inning. They called it clutch, heroics, a defining moment in their career.

That opportunity now laid before me. We had just 1 out with the bases loaded by some miracle. We had somehow gotten the top of the order to lead off the inning. Ansley doubled by hitting one into the gap between the centerfielder and rightfielder. Draklin drew a walk while Zealouin flew out to third base. Lee snuck a single just past the first baseman, but Ansley didn't risk it by just running to third.

That left me with the bases loaded, representing the winning run. If I screwed up, Arla could still have shot unless I ground into a double play, and then the game is over. I took my position in the box. I felt a bit antsy because I'm the one that put us into the score deficit, but also excited because I could fix it right now. But what if I screwed up? That brought a twinge of nervousness into my mind. Then I realized if I screwed this up, I couldn't be any worse off than earlier.

My mind was a mess. I tried to remember how I approached my previous at bats where I got hits. I couldn't remember. It's as if my memory banks had frozen in the time that I actually needed them. Suddenly, the sound of a ball smacking a glove snapped me out of my thoughts. I instinctively stepped out of the box and glanced at the scoreboard. A 1-2 count? I hadn't even realized the pitches had gone by me.

I stepped back in and cleared my mind of everything except the task of hitting the ball. The pitcher wound up and threw in his pitch. A fastball inside...wait a second; the spin makes it look like it will move to my right slightly. I adjusted my swing and reached out a bit more than I would for a fastball inside.

Huge contact! The ball hit right in the sweet spot of the bat and rocketed off into the distance in right field. I dropped the bat and started sprinting towards first base. The ball flew along the foul line, but still fair. I rounded first while it was still in the air and was halfway to second when it hit the wall with a solid _Thunk_. It bounced away from the right fielder who tried to glove it off the wall. I then rounded second and sprinted towards third. I looked back to where the ball was; the centerfielder had just gotten a glove on it and was preparing to throw. The third base coach was yelling, "GO GO GO!" and waving his arms in a circle as fast as he could. I rounded third but only glanced at home. I saw the cut-off man throw the ball as hard as he could to home; the ball rocketed across the infield and into the catcher's glove just after I went into a slide about 4 feet from the plate. I slid to the right with my left hand reaching for the base to touch it. The ball hit the glove just as I touched the base.

I just layed there for a second. My left hand was on home, and I was looking towards the outfield when I heard the magic words. "SAFE!" the umpire yelled.

The crowd roared in cheers, applause, and almost every other kind of celebration available to them from their seats. I turned over onto my back and was greeted by my teammates jumping around, shouting, and trying to pump the crowd up even more. I was helped up, high-fived, patted on the back, and so many other things that I could barely comprehend what was going on. I couldn't believe what happened. The PA's voice was barely audible over the cheers of the crowd. "For the second time in baseball, an Inside the Park Grand Slam in Walk-Off fashion. Hit by the Tower's own MAXIMUS!" The crowd roared again with more vigor and volume.

I started walking to the dugout surrounding by my teammates still celebrating. I was just about to enter the dugout when I heard a female voice call out my name to my right. A young human woman was standing there with a small recording device. The logo she wore on her shirt matched one that I recalled was a news station's.

The press was honestly the last thing I needed, but the Vanguard wanted to improve relations with the people. I motioned the team onwards and walked over to the reporter. "Ah, the man of the hour. Mica Sheerly of City News Broadcasting. Mind if we take a quick interview?" she asked.

"Not at all," I answered.

"First, the obvious question. How does it feel being just the second player in history to ever hit a walk-off inside the park grand slam?"

"I was just doing my duty…" 

"So you see this as a duty? Not as a way to connect with us people below the Tower?" Mica interrupted.

"Wait a minute, you misunderstand. I think this was a great opportunity for the Guardians and the City to bond. The only way we're going to get anything done would be by working together, just like the repairs to the Wall."

"Do you know if you'll be playing in any of the next four games?"

"That I can't be sure. Patrols and Wallguard duty have been increased so much. You just never know, but I will say with some confidence that I may play a couple more games before the series is out."

"Was any of this game preplanned? It's not everyday that something like that happens. Did the Cosmos throw the game?"

"No. Not at all."

"So then tell me, where did you get so good at the game of baseball? How long have you been playing?"

"One game…"

"...in this long series?" I gave her a look. "So you mean to tell me that you've played only this one game the entire time?"

"Exactly."

"Speaking of lengths. How long have you been a Guardian?"

I had to think for a moment. So much had happened that I could've sworn it had been several months when it, in truth, had been "Not even a month."

"Interesting. So if I have my facts straight, Guardians are actually resurrected dead from long ago. What did you do in that life?"

"I was a soldier in the Allied Earth Army. I was there when we had to hold the Cosmodrome in order to let people escape to the Moon and beyond. I went out of action for probably several hours while the Fallen made a huge push that must've killed my fellow troops."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but you're here now making a difference. So do you think that the Guardians will be able to hold the Wall should the Fallen make another advance like the one last week?"

I held up a hand. "Wait a minute, this interview is no longer about baseball or grand slams. I'm no political figure, just a soldier doing what he should to protect the city that I now call home. To answer your question though, should the Fallen come knocking again, we will fight to the last man to defend the City. The closest they will get while a Guardian lives is the forest just outside of the Wall."

The reporter turned to the guy holding the camera. "You heard it here first. Once again, thank you Maximus and good luck in your future endeavors."

She cut the camera and walked off without another word to me. I walked into the dugout where I saw Layma sitting on the bench, leaning her head back on the wall behind her. She must have heard me come down the stairs. "You done speaking to the leeches called the press?"

I sighed. "Never liked those sharks. They trap you with questions, and the next thing you know, you're talking about something completely off topic. That lady tried to get me to talk about the Wall."

"Doesn't surprise me," Layma said standing up. She shook my hand. "Good job by the way. Just try not to look so clueless next time." She turned around and pushed open the part of the wall that was the door. I gathered my belongings from the small cubbies that were provided in the dugout. I replaced the helmet I still wore with the baseball cap. I pushed open the door and caught up with Layma.

"I didn't mean to look so clueless. Didn't think that was possible in Exos like yourself and I."

"Point taken," she responded. "I just meant it as an expression though. It's not like this is your first time playing baseball."

"Actually, it is."

"What?" Layma said in surprise. "How did you do as well as you did then?"

"Lee took me here a couple of hours before the game and showed me the ropes. The rest was just copying what I've read about baseball games and certain situations within them. I've never heard of an inside-the-park walk-off grand slam though."

"That's because the only other one was made by a man named Roberto Clemente in 1956, hundreds of years ago."

"Amazing." We entered the locker room to nobody being present. They must've gone to celebrate or something without us. We gathered what few belongings we had there and were about to exit when we both noticed something wrong at the same time. "Game's over. We should probably put on our armor. You go to that side of the room, and I'll stay here," she said.

I walked over to Lee's locker and had Starco spawn in the bond. I slipped off the cleats and pulled the bond past my elbow and activated it. The armor appeared over my uniform with my weapons already strapped on. I checked everything to make sure it was secure. "You ready?" I called across the room.

"Yeah," Layma responded. I turned around and walked towards the exit with her just in front of me.

Layma wore completely white armor with a purple hood that flowed like a cape as she walked The armor seemed gave the impression of agility rather than defense, but it still looked like more armor than mine. She looked back at me. "Nice threads," she commented.

"Not so bad yourself," I responded.

"There not too bad, but nothing as fashionable as you have. You go to the outfitter recently?"

"Had to. Fallen blood stains beyond repair, so the Vanguard granted me a pass to get a new set of armor."

"You got a commendation? It's so hard to get those things. What'd you do to get it?"

"I went to Earth to meet my fireteam for the first time. I killed a Fallen Baroness and saved one of my team members from bleeding out. Not sure which got me the commendation."

"My guess is the first one. Losing team members is part of the program."

"At any rate, what do you plan on doing now?"

"Not much. Figured I'd wander the City a bit. Visit a shop or two…"

"Quick question," I interrupted. "You wouldn't happen to know if they had a furniture store and an electronics store around here would you?"

"What good would the last safe City on Earth be if nobody could sleep on a bed. It's just around the corner I'll show you." With that, we exited the stadium and took a left at the corner

I got my shopping done rather quickly. I took a black couch with three cushions on it as well as a Holo-TV. I could stick the small cylinder anywhere on the wall and it would project a screen in front of it. I also bought four handheld devices (called Clips) capable of sending text messages, and synced all of their information together. I then put the thin devices in a pocket that did not hold ammunition.

"Why'd you get four?" Layma asked.

I reached into the pocket and pulled one of them out. I tossed it to her underhanded. "For you, as well as my fireteam members. Do you want two for yours? I don't mind; I have more Glimmer than I know what to do with."

"No. Just the one is fine. Thanks for the Clip by the way."

"Hey no problem. What good is a friend if we can't keep in touch?"

"Point taken. Let's explore a bit more. Maybe we can find some of the others."

We didn't find them and actually wound up just going back to the Tower. We had mostly small talk, but it wasn't a bad way to use an afternoon and practically a day off from Guardian duties. We said our goodbyes at the different lifts we took to our quarters. It was now about 10 o'clock, and the news would probably come on pretty soon. I spent a few minutes fiddling with the Holo-TV and got it working. It immediately tuned to the news and up came the story about the baseball game.

They left out most of the interview except for the part about my backstory and the Wall. "Dumb media," I muttered while sitting on the new couch.

"I hear you," Starco said. "They always twist stuff so that people believe that was the actual interview. I know what you said, and you know what you said. It doesn't matter what other think of you. Though, it doesn't look like they put too bad of an edit on the interview."

"I just wish that it could've stayed about the game though. I'm a Guardian, not a politician or PR representative."

Suddenly, my Clip buzzed from the desk across the room. There was only one person it could be as Arla's and Lee's still sat next to each other on the desk directly across the room. It was indeed Layma. "Meet me on the balcony at the Tower Plaza. Now. I saw the news article and realized something. We need to talk." I had a good idea of where that was, but no idea what she had to talk about.

I when there nonetheless. Her white armor seemed to blend into the color of the Tower, aside from the cape on her hood blowing in the breeze. "You needed to see me?" I said climbing over the top step and approaching her. She was firmly grasping the guardrail that was in front of her looking over the empty plaza.

"Yes. Maximus, you said in the interview that you were in the Allied Earth Army out of action for a time during the defense of the Cosmodrome."

"Yes, why do you ask?" I said suspiciously.

"I have a similar background." She paused and gripped the railing harder if that was even possible. She then turned around and raised her hand to approximately her forehead. "It's good to see you again Captain Maximus." She quickly moved it forward into a fist in front of her face. The exact salute of a soldier from the Allied Earth Army.


	15. Consequences

Chapter 15

Consequences

I stood staring, saying absolutely nothing. She was a soldier just as I was. I could have sworn that I was the only one who "survived" that because I didn't see many bodies. Without a body, how could a Ghost revive someone? I then thought of Arla's ship crash, which immediately answered my question.

Layma stopped saluting and looked down. "Too much too soon?"

"No...no. I'm just a bit surprised," I regained my composure for the most part. "What did you do? In the Army I mean."

"I was a scout on that final mission at the Cosmodrome," she started. "To be honest, my last words were relaying information to an officer that I now know as yourself. Not the best last words, but at least I died doing my duty."

That's where I knew the voice! I put a hand on her shoulder. "You did exactly what you needed to, and I thank you for that. I apologize that we could not have met under normal circumstances in our previous lives. We're here now though." Now that I looked at her, I realized that her white armor looked extremely similar to a scout's uniform in the AEA. How did I miss that?

"That's true. So what do you think about being a Guardian?"

"It's interesting," I began. "Certainly not the military anymore. Never thought I would be able to do this." I formed an orb in my hand, large and bright in the moonlight.

"Certainly is true. Remember those experimental energy weapons they gave us because of how desperate the situation was back then?"

"Yeah. Those things were horrible."

Layma laughed. "Got that right. Apparently, those were the basis for the fusion rifles we have now."

"I think I'm going to stick with more conventional weapons."

"Yeah," she said in almost a mocking tone. "Then what are you using for guns then? Mr. Conventional Weapons."

"MIDA Multi-Tool, Civilian Applications, Unfriendly Giant."

"Not so conventional weapons then, especially that Exotic. You do realize that all of those connect to your armor and grant certain abilities."

I sighed. "You got me. It's a much different world we live in. What do you use in the field?"

"I too use an exotic. A pulse rifle called Time on Target with a fusion rifle called Plan C and a machine gun called Jolder's Hammer."

"Doesn't sound like a bad loadout at all."

"It isn't, but you can only go so far alone."

"What do you mean? Don't you have a fireteam?"

Layma looked at the ground again. "They're dead. I lost them at the Wall, and the Vanguard haven't done anything about it yet. Their demise is completely my fault. I should have told them to get away from the Walker's blast…"

"It isn't your fault!" I interrupted. "You were and are a soldier. We lost so many brothers and sisters during that one battle for the Cosmodrome not to mention all those before us. They may not be here physically with us when we get to the end goal, but they are there not only in memory but in spirit. I can't even begin to count how many men and women I lost under my command. In a war, we can never save them all. We just have to save as many of those as we can."

"You make a good point, and I understand that. But, a fireteam is different. You can save your fallen teammates. They're a part of you. The Traveler creates a special connection between those who fight as one for its defense. Losing them is like losing a piece of yourself."

I stayed silent, mulling over her words. She seemed to be right. I wasn't sure about the connection part, but as the saying goes, 'You don't know what you've got till it's gone.' I had no more words of solace as the tough-looking Huntress now looked more pitiable more so by her voice and posture than her face. I walked up to the railing and leaned on it in the direction of the Traveler. It seemed to glow in the night air like a second, equally destroyed, moon. "So who were they?" I asked.

Layma now faced the same direction I did, folding her arms on the rail and looking out at the Traveler in a similar fashion to me. "They were both human Titans. Miguel Ortiz, he had a terrible sense of humor and made so many puns out of thin air. I kind of miss them now that he's gone. Then there was also Hannah Smith. Really quiet but a really crafty strategist. I didn't think that this was possible for the likes of myself and you, but I miss them."

"Don't just stand here grieving then. Honor their memory by getting out there and fighting the good fight. Don't just come out victorious; come out the unconquered warrior."

"I think your right. Thank you Maximus. I really think this is what I needed."

"It's no problem Layma. Anytime you need words of encouragement." She left not long after I said that, and I left moments afterward to shut down for the night.

The next day, I was walking to the Vanguard to answer a question that now slips my mind. It doesn't matter what the question was now because I never got to ask it. In fact, I never even reached the Vanguard.

I descended the steps into the open hallway that led to the Vanguard's room. In front of some shop with a Titan dressed in white armor standing just in front of it. The Guardian had a singular horn on his helmet and what looked like fur coming off of his pauldrons. A voice called over in an angry tone. "Hey you! Vanguard's Golden Boy!" I kept walking, thinking that the comment had nothing to do with me. A firm hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" It was a male Human Warlock in crimson and white robes. On either side of him was an Awoken Hunter with a bald head and a light blue face; he wore brown armor like the other hunter that stood next to him. The other Hunter was a human with a buzzcut. Both of them had serious expressions on their faces.

"Listen, I don't know what I did to upset you, but I have somewhere I need to be," I reasoned and tried to walk away. The arm grabbed my shoulder and spun me around once again.

"Too bad. We're going to find out what makes you so special that the Vanguard puts you in a high-ranking position after being a Guardian for less than a month!" The Warlock got close to my face and spat in it as he spoke. "What makes you so special tinman?" He shoved me. "You just some power hungry robot looking to be a one man army?" He shoved me again, this time hard enough to knock me into a few crates up against the wall.

"Warlock, I seek no quarrel with you."

"Well, too bad. You've got one anyways. Now answer the question. What makes you so special?" The Warlock grabbed me by the collar on my and pulled his face close to mine.

I said nothing but put an arm behind my back and started growing an orb. He yelled again, "Answer the question!"

I spoke in a defiant tone. "Absolutely nothing." I opened my hand and thrust it into his torso. A sharp crack reverberated off the walls as the melee sent him flying into the opposite wall. Everyone stopped and stared at the Guardian picking himself off of the ground wheezing a bit from the point-blank attack. I walked over to him and knelt down. "There's absolutely nothing special about me," I reiterated. Now I got into his face. "I'm just a soldier doing what I need to."

The got up, and I backed away. He grinned arrogantly and said, "Let's test that in the field then. Lord Shaxx! Set up a 1v3 Skirmish match at the Twilight Gap now. Blink us there whenever it's ready." He turned to me again. "Those odds should be nothing for a soldier as good as yourself."

I didn't get to respond when a bright blue flash flared up and my surroundings changed. I was standing on a large metal platform that connected a couple of rusted buildings. In the distance, the Traveler, the City, and the Wall loomed in the distance. The area was on top of a hill it seemed. Suddenly, my vision went dark momentarily and the HUD powered up on my helmet. "Might need this," Starco said.

"Thanks," I replied, drawing my weapon. A voice I recognized as Lord Shaxx's came over the comms.

"Alright Guardians, this is a 1-life match with shields that will not regenerate. Once downed, you will stay down until the end of the match, so watch your backs Guardians. Remember to set your weapons to stun mode and Good luck to you."

I immediately figured that my best bet to come out victorious would be to find some cover and stick with it. As I scanned my surroundings, there was an upper area with a wall on each side of the catwalks as well as a bottom area with a lot of cover but still susceptible to fire from above, not to mention being clearly visible. My armor was primarily blue and orange; it stood out against the rust colors and greys of the buildings. Then again, that Guardian was in yellow, so he would stand out as well.

I ultimately took cover on one of the catwalks and wait out my enemy. Eventually, they would come through here and when they did, I would smoke them. I started checking over cover every few seconds or so but didn't see anything for almost a full two minutes. No doubt they were planning some sort of trap or trying to lull me into a false sense of security. It was then that the first shots rang out.

The frequency they hit my cover indicated that the Guardian shooting at me was using an Auto Rifle. Then shots came from the other side of my cover by a three-shot Pulse Rifle. They fired in alternating volleys. If I were to pop up, then I would surely be hit by one of them and take massive damage from a likely headshot. Then the fire stopped completely.

Seizing the opportunity, I pulled up over cover and fired where the Guardian with the Auto Rifle should have been. He had been reloading and dropped the clip on accident when I fired on him. It took four or five shots to down him, but I got out of that engagement unscathed. My shields suddenly dipped below half as I took three consecutive hits behind me. By the time I downed the next guy, I had taken another volley, dodged most of a third one, and lost what had remained of my shields. I slammed another clip in and moved across the catwalk to one of the buildings that looked to have plenty of cover inside.

The yellow Warlock turned the corner just as I was about to enter. He quickly fired a bullet from an orange-red hand cannon. Sensors from my suit and my own systems started popping up all over my HUD; the largest of them said, "ARMOR COMPROMISED." Ignoring them, I looked down at my torso. A large hole had been torn in it with fluids, my internal fluids, staining the surrounding area blue and eventually black. I dropped my gun and placed my left hand over the wound. I fell onto all fours (minus the hand covering the wound).

The yellow Guardian's heavy boots clonked on the ground as he casually strolled over to where I was now half-laying on the ground. My right hand was lying on the MIDA Multi-Tool's barrel, but I was in no position to retaliate. I looked up and saw his form towering over me with a gun extended to finish me. I brought my knees underneath me but kept my hand on the wound. "There was something they told us in the military," I said, my voice growing weaker.

"What would that be?" the yellow Warlock said with a laugh.

"Not to let your target retaliate." I grabbed my gun with my right arm and flicked off stun mode immediately. I fired four shots into his ankle and dropped the weapon. The Guardian immediately grabbed his leg. I got up and kicked him in the stomach. I let go of my wound momentarily and grabbed him by his cloak. With one hard push, the Warlock fell over the rail onto the ground below. I know I didn't kill him due to the armor he wore, but this match was certainly. My legs gave out and vision shut down. The last thing I felt was my hard impact on the ground.

A bright light shone in my eyes. It was about noon according to where the Sun was in the sky. Then again, I could be wrong. I have before and will be once again; I just hope that isn't for some time. I raised my hand to cast a bit of shade from the harsh rays. However, I wasn't on Earth.

My surroundings were of a red tint. Large dunes of the same color surround me without an end in sight. I walked forward aimlessly but seeming to have a general sense of purpose. "Hey Starco, what's the objective? I seem to have forgotten." Nothing responded save for a wind that began to blow across the sand. "Starco. What am I here to do?" I repeated a bit more forcefully. Something suddenly crunched underneath my boot.

Some sort of machine lay underneath my right boot. I moved my boot quickly off of it and examined the pieces that lay on the ground. Most of it was a shiny black with small white dots on it. A small gray sphere lay next to the pieces. I picked it up and saw a bright blue light in the middle of it. The light faded until the area around it was just as black as the shattered pieces under my boot. A thought popped into my head, 'Why?'

It was an odd question because I didn't even know "What." The place I was in looked a lot like Mars, but why would I be here? What happened? Most importantly, where are Lee and Arla?

I spoke into the comms. "Arla. Lee. What's your position?" Nothing but static, and the wind beginning to pick up a bit. More of the dust around me started moving in small clouds several feet at a time. A dust storm was imminent, and I needed to get out of here as soon as possible. "Lee. Arla. Do you copy?" I yelled. "Respond!"

I continued walking forward, shaken but still moving. I kept trying to communicate with my teammates with no response. I walked for what seemed like hours before I saw two figures, guns drawn, shooting at something in the distance. A sharp blow of the wind seemed to blow them away as swiftly as they had originally appeared. The wind was really beginning to blow hard and increased in strength every passing second. I could barely see with all the dust in the air.

I suddenly tripped over something solid. I landed hard in the red sand with my legs entangled in something. I turned around and struggled out of whatever had trapped me. To my own disbelief, I crawled over to what I had been entangled with. It was a Titan with holes all over the armor exposing large chunks of charred flesh underneath. There was no way that whoever was underneath that armor was still alive. I removed the cracked helmet to reveal Lee with his eyes staring blankly into the distance but a look of accusation forever engraved on his face. There was no use in shaking him to see if he was alive because without a helmet, he would die in minutes due to a lack of oxygen, not to mention how bad his flesh looked from the holes in the armor.

I continued crawling blindly finding it too dangerous to continue walking. I had moved only about five meters or so when I found another body. This one had no helmet and was clearly dead. The face was that of an Awoken female with brown hair and fair skin. The armor and torn hood gave away that this person was a Huntress. Upon examining the face again, I came to the conclusion that this was most definitely Arla. Her face was also contorted into a look of accusation with her green, glowing eyes seeming to stare right into mine. Several holes were torn into her own armor and a small dribble of blood was coming off the side of her mouth and onto the sand. Despite its wet appearance, the blood was dry. She and Lee had been dead for at least a couple of hours.

A voice echoed, "Why did you not come?"

I stood up and turned around to where I thought the voice was coming from.

The voice spoke from another angle this time. "I told you to come, but you never did. Why did you not listen?"

I spun to the source again. I shouted at the voice that seemed to be everywhere at once, "I don't know who you are, or what you're talking about. Now identify yourself!" I reached back for my weapon only to find it absent from its usual sling. In fact, all of my weapons were gone. The dust storm raged on all around me either drowning out the response, or there wasn't one to begin with.

I turned around again and immediately saw the face of the Stranger I saw on the Moon. I jumped back immediately to create at least some distance. "I told you to meet me on Venus. Why did you not come?" she reiterated.

"I...I…"

"NO EXCUSES!" She yelled. The Stranger turned around and started doing something with her hands. "You have THREE days! Got it. Get to Venus, or you will all be dead." She quickly turned around with a gun in her hand. The Stranger fired before I could even react to her spinning around. I felt no pain but looked at a large hole torn into my lower torso with black and blue fluid beginning to ooze out onto the surrounding armor and sand. I fell to my knees holding my wound closed as best as I could. Fluid still oozed from between my fingers. "Don't fail me," she said. Two more shots ripped into me and my vision went black before I hit the ground.


	16. Venus

Chapter 16

Venus

My vision started to fade in and gradually focus. I was staring at the white ceiling of a small room about the size of my quarters. However, this wasn't my quarters as there was much more machinery in the room closer to myself. A couch sat on one of the sides of a room with a man in a T-shirt and cargo shorts snoring loudly on it, leaning awkwardly to one side. The sound of Lee's snoring filled up the entire room. The window above the couch was dark with the light of the City seeping through just a little bit. I didn't know what time it was, but it was definitely sometime at night.

I attempted to sit up back something blocked my left hand from supporting my weight. I looked at it and saw Arla, face down on the bed I lay in, grasping my left hand with two of her own holding it firmly. I carefully sat up without moving my left hand, but she must've sensed my movement somehow because as soon as I sat up, she lifted her head with half-closed eyes and bags underneath them.

She threw her face back on the bed after a few seconds. Arla suddenly jerked up as if noticing that I was awake. "Maximus?" she mumbled in a voice that was clearly still asleep when compared with the now-alert expression on her face. Her hands remained on mine firmer than before. "Maximus!" Arla jumped up and threw her arms around me as if she hadn't seen me in several years.

The embrace lasted several minutes until I broke it off. She sat back down in the chair. " I thought we lost you…"

I started to speak but was immediately cut off by her. "Why did you pick a fight with one of the most notorious Guardians here?"

I sat silent for a moment. My memory was clouded with only what I had seen in the dream coming immediately. Everything got pieced together, and I realized what she was talking about. "I didn't," I solaced her. "He attacked me, initiated some sort of Guardian v. Guardian combat after I cleared him off of me."

"He challenged you to a Crucible match?" Her voice sounded surprised.

"Yeah. A 1v3 Skirmish match. That Guardian wanted to prove something to the Vanguard I guess."

"That wasn't it. Not everyone was happy about the selections for the promoted fireteams. His must have been jealous of us, and he wanted to pick one of us off in order to make us unfit for the task. You just so happened to be the first one he ran across."

"But how did he know I was part of the Frontier Task Force?"

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you. But I do have a question: did you win?"

I thought back to the battle between myself and the Warlock in yellow. He had originally tried to kill me and put a hole in my chest, but I did eventually shove him off the railing. I guess it was technically a draw, but I didn't pass out until after he hit the ground below. "I guess I won."

"You guess?" Arla asked curiously. I explained what happened in that building on the catwalk. Her eyes told of a growing understanding as she went on. I left out the dream though. I didn't want them to get killed while I went on a wild goose chase to Venus.

She sat back in her chair and put a hand on her chin, possibly connecting two ideas. "That explains why he's in the Intensive Care Unit."

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Extreme trauma pretty much everywhere consistent with a long fall. He won't be hurting anybody for several weeks at the very least. For keeping his gun able to kill, he will likely get suspended from all Crucible activities. At any rate, he will probably hate you for some time."

"That's pretty likely."

"Regardless of that, how are you feeling? Did the doctors do a good enough repair?"

I looked down at my bare metal torso under the blanket that covered me. There was no evidence that there had ever been a hole anywhere in my chest. Even some of the scuffs that had been there before as reminders from my time in the military were buffed out and gone completely. It was an impeccable job. "They did extremely well. I can't even tell that I had a hole there. Even some of my older scuffs and dents are gone."

"That's good, but you should probably rest. Who knows what it did to your internal systems." She hit a button on a small device connected to the bed. A translucent green liquid flowed through a tube in my arm. My limbs went limp and my vision blurred; I shut my eyes as the liquid forced a shutdown.

I powered up that afternoon. At least, I hoped that it was the afternoon of the same day. My head hurt slightly when I woke up, but it cleared after a few seconds. I looked around the room and saw that it was empty of everything except the machines monitoring me. I needed to get to Venus as soon as possible, which requires me to get out of this bed and to my ship, but that also means dodging doctors and possibly Arla and Lee. My guess is that they're at the Wall on watch duty because of my injury. It wasn't very likely that the Vanguard would have given them a mission while I was injured. Then again, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I slung my legs off the side of the bed and pushed the blanket to the side. My progress was stopped by several cords and tubes connected to various parts of my body, pulling them would result in the machines wailing and ruining my plan to get out of here. "Let me get those," a robotic voice said from my right. Starco floated into view and scanned the various machines by the bed. All of them shut down several seconds later, and I began working on disconnecting the various things connected to me.

Disconnected from the medical system, I stood up and grabbed the bond from a wall hangar next to the machines. The metal felt like ice when I touched it and activated on contact The green glow of its edges were a familiar and welcome sight. I slid it over my arm and my armor covered my body. When I took a step towards the door, pain sensors erupted in my lower torso, causing me to grab my chest until it subsided a minute or two later. I almost grunted but managed tokeep it in. 'The repair is going to need some time to fill to my normal activities,' I thought.

"Probably will take a week or so," Starco said.

"What will?" I said.

"The repair."

"How did you…?"

"I am a part of you Maximus. I know your thoughts and actions."

"So then, why haven't you stopped any bad ideas I may have had previously."

"Being a Guardian requires on-the-job training." I sat there in thought for a moment. I needed to get to Venus as soon as possible. Starco spoke again. "What's this about Venus?"

I realized that he read my thoughts again and probably already knew my response. "While I was out, I had some sort of dream or vision or something. Do you remember that strange Exo we met on the Moon?"

"Oh, that's right. What was the vision about?" he said hovering over the bed.

"I thought you could read my thoughts," I said.

"Do I look like a Dreamcatcher? Also, you were completely deactivated; any access that I tried to gain into your systems was denied by some encrypted protocol that I couldn't solve. Whoever built you did not want anyone or anything getting in."

"At any rate, I need to get to the ship. I'll explain the dream on the way to Venus." I walked to the door and pulled it open. I ducked my head out and looked in both directions, nobody in sight.

The multi-colored light of hyperspace filled my entire view in dazzling yellows, oranges, and a multitude of other shades and hues. I sat back in the pilot's chair with my eyes closed, reliving that nightmare of a vision so Starco could see it.

We watched from a distance. I could now see that my armor was blackened and riddled with holes in various places. My face was a faded blue or colorless in most spots, and my eyes were a very faint yellow. I watched as I found the bodies of Arla and Lee. I now saw that the Stranger pulled out a small sidearm and shot me several times even after I remember dying.

Starco pointed himself downward towards the floor with what I guessed was a solemn look on a Ghost. "I didn't know. We can't let that happen…"

"Which is why we're heading to Venus right now," I said.

"Agreed."

Silence filled the ship as it raced through space. I stared out of the viewport at the many colors of hyperspace. I thought of Arla and Lee as well as the consequences that would follow if I failed once getting onto the surface of Venus. The ship shuddered for a moment and then braked hard. I lurched forward slightly but was stopped by the restraints in the seat.

The surface was covered in thick greenish-yellow clouds of sulfuric acid, so I couldn't see any possible damage like that on the Moon. 'Earth's Twin' astronomers called it long ago. They called it that because of its relatively close size to Earth, but Earth wasn't able to kill you just by breathing in the atmosphere. When I was in my previous life, I focused on killing off any of my enemies without remorse or second thought. It's honestly a past that I would prefer not to remember but have to embrace nonetheless. There were many glories from my days there, but as with all militaries, there are certain atrocities best loss to the sands of time.

As we approached, Starco input the exact landing coordinates the Stranger sent us on the Moon, and the Autopilot took us to the spot. The ship hovered over a small fork in the road; one part led to a long-abandoned and destroyed city started by people called the Ishtar Collective, and a second part leading to other forks in the road with probably boundless possibilities. I checked my weapons and opened the door. As it lowered, I saw the light colored soil of the surface. Multicolored puddles dotted the immediate area indicating a recent rain or storm.

I jumped out of the ship hit the ground harder than I expected. I used my right hand to help steady the fall as I fell to one knee. I landed in one of the larger puddles. The splash drenched me in the strange liquid leaving me dripping immediately afterward. I stood up and attempted to wipe off the liquid. I stepped out of the puddle, my cloak was slightly damp, but that wasn't going to hinder me from my task at hand. I then noticed that my shield had weakened a small bit while I was getting the liquid off.

Noticing my glancing thought about it, Starco said, "Yeah, that's sulfuric acid. Try and keep that shield up as strong as possible because the armor isn't completely acid-proof. It'll steadily degrade with repeated exposure, but for your armor to get completely compromised, you'd have to be shieldless for a week or so."

"Good to know," I responded. "So where do the coordinates lead?"

"Let's not worry about that now, we need to connect to the Guardian outpost not far from here on the Shattered Coast. Jump on your Sparrow and let's get going."

"Sparrow?"

"Think of them as a sort of hoverbike. They don't have any offensive capabilities, but they are fast enough to dodge most enemy fire and get you away from any tough firefights you can't win by yourself. To acquire it, just swing your right leg over like you were getting on some sort of vehicle."

I was slightly suspicious of this sort of thing, but I swung my right leg over an imaginary vehicle anyways. Honestly, I half-expected to be sitting in one of those puddles again, but found myself sitting on a durable seat. Two handle bars appeared in front of me as well as a holo-screen with the body leading to a white two-pronged nose. There was the whir of engines coming from below and behind me.

I sat there for a few seconds admiring the piece of machinery that I sat upon. It was definitely better than the vehicles we had in the military. 'I wonder how fast it will go...' I seized both handlebars and squeezed them as hard as I could. Nothing happened. I attempted again with the same result. I looked around for some source of resistance but found none whatsoever; the bike was hovering about 8 or so inches off of the ground, and no enemies were in sight. I stepped off the Sparrow and walked around it. Then I noticed what I'd been doing wrong: I hadn't been putting my feet in the designated areas near the back of the vehicle.

I climbed back on and bent my legs at the knees to secure my feet. I gunned it again and the Sparrow launched forward with amazing speed and acceleration. I leaned forward to lessen the resistance as well as observe the holo-screen a bit better at the cost of a smaller line of sight with the road ahead.

I constantly swapped my vision between the screen and the road. I turned right into a small straight and quickly glanced at what was on the blue screen. Covering two-thirds of the screen was a speedometer indicating I was going 80 mph. The other third was divided in half itself. The top was a radar with a blip showing which way Starco wanted me to go; the bottom half was what looked like a damage diagram of the vehicle. The entire thing was just an outline, indicating no damage, but would gradually turn red if something shot it somewhere. I tapped the screen and made the radar the largest of the three screens. It came to the center and sent the speed into its place. I pulled right and then left a short time later to enter into the ruins of a city.

Destroyed buildings and disintegrating cars lined the bombed-out streets. Vegetation was growing through the cracks. A light sulfuric acid rain was falling but did nothing more than form droplets on my HUD before being automatically wiped away by a thin bar of light. I turned right again and saw the remains of a building facing a cliff. The dot on the screen seemed to point straight to it. It was 200 meters away when I heard the sharp sound of a gun followed by some sort of aftersound that reminded me of a high-pitched growl. A red-orange ball of plasma impacted the right prong in the front. I looked around for the source of the shot but found none as a second shot hit the same prong about the same place, causing it to fall off. I was losing control of the Sparrow, but I could hold it straight long enough to jump off just in front of the outpost and hopefully get out unscathed.

A third shot missed just above my head. I gave up on trying to locate the sniper and tried to keep the Sparrow together long enough to get to the outpost and find decent cover there. I squeezed the handles harder to attempt to get more speed. It succeeded in gaining a bit of speed to about 92 mph, but the whir of the engines was getting uncomfortably loud. I glanced at the diagram, which had taken center stage with the incoming damage, and saw that the right prong had been grayed out due to its absence, but I also noticed that the steering mechanism was a dull red, and a warning had popped up indicating an unnatural, and potentially dangerous, rise in temperature in the engines. Then, I heard the fourth shot split the air.

I saw it out of the corner of my eye until it disappeared into my blind spot. Originally, I believed it to have struck the ground behind me until I heard and felt the explosion. The shot had been a direct hit to the engine. The Sparrow flipped vertically, the back end in the air, and threw me about 8 meters into the air with no way to right myself and Glide safely to the ground. From my aerial vantage I saw the Sparrow tumble violently on the ground, flinging debris of various sizes in every direction.

I wasn't focused on it though. I was flailing my arms to try and straighten myself and not hit the ground as hard. Gravity did its work quickly as I sped forward and down until I slammed into the ground. I extended my arms forward just before the impact trying to brace myself and minimize the damage. My hands softened the impact only slightly but did allow me to roll horizontally on the ground rather than tumble like the Sparrow did. I rolled until I hit the wall of what I presumed was that building I was trying to get to. I was lying face down on the ground, completely defenseless in the face of that sniper perched somewhere above me.

I picked myself off the ground and pulled out the MIDA Multi-Tool and immediately checked my surroundings. There was no sign of the sniper but I wasn't taking any chances. I felt my way around the wall and found that I was indeed at the outpost I needed to be at. A large console lay silent. Starco quickly floated over to it and started scanning feverishly. I was staring at the screen which was running through schematics of robot-like creatures labeled as the Vex. I recognized the ones labeled Goblins from my vision, but there was nothing called 'The Heart' in the files. Six gunshots came from behind me. I rolled right and turned around to meet my assailant.

It was that stranger from the Moon holding a yellow Pulse Rifle with a tip that glowed light blue every few seconds. We stared each other down the sights of our guns for several seconds, unwilling to give an inch to one another. "Drop the gun," I ordered sternly continuing to stare down the sights.

She responded cooly through the clear visor on her helmet covered by the hood. "I don't think you are in the position to be giving orders here. If I'm not mistaken, I hold the lives of your teammates in my hands, and I will kill them without any second thought should you fail to do what I say. So, with that out of the way. How about you drop YOUR gun?"

I responded by tightening my grip on it. The stranger suddenly rushed forward with impeccable speed. She started with a knee to my chest followed by a quick twist of my wrist and the Multi-Tool went clattering onto the ground. She kicked the gun away from me as I propped myself on one knee and stared up at her. I wanted to retaliate, but her gun was pointed at my face. Any unauthorized movement, and she would no doubt shoot me to pieces, not to mention killing Arla and Lee as well. I stood up in defiance of her regardless. The Stranger's trigger finger didn't even twitch.

"What do you want with me?" I asked leaning over to pick up my weapon at the same time. I didn't receive an answer. Instead, the Stranger gave me a boot to the face. My vision turned black at the edges, and I staggered against the wall next to the now-destroyed console. She didn't move though; she didn't have to. My suit was losing power at an alarming rate until it became only a stiff shell that became my prison. I couldn't move and promptly fell to the ground defenseless. I then felt myself get picked up and carried.

All of my systems powered on with a sudden jolt like a lightning bolt had directly struck me. I started looking around immediately. It looked like a combination betweeen a courtyard and a library just at a first glance. There was a statue in the middle with some sort of growth on it, marring what the figure was. I stood up and checked for my weapons. The Multi-Tool and Civilian Application were securely strapped to my back. The Stranger must have clipped it there as I have no recollection of putting it away. To my left, I heard a sort of hissing noise, as if a strong beam of plasma was hitting something, stopping, and then hitting it again. It seemed to have a metallic echo to it at the end.

I looked left and could barely make out Starco shooting his blue light at a console. He noticed me up and about and said, "It's fascinating. There's so much about the Vex here. A lot of this cites the Ishtar Collective. I'm sure that if we could find the Collective, then we'll have so much information, it would take an army of cryptarchs to decipher it all."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," I said walking over to where he was. The light blue lights and bioluminescence made the screen hard to read with their glare, but I did notice the red alert screen.

"Crap!" Starco exclaimed. "It's the Vex. They've locked me out of the systems and sent troops to this location."

"How long do we have?"

"Now."

Starco disappeared and I grabbed the Multi-Tool from my back and looked towards where that statue was, seeing some sort of path beyond it. I took cover behind what looked like some sort of metal half-wall or an ancient desk (I still didn't know what this place was or once was). I settled my gun on the top of it regardless and pointed it towards the doorway.

At that precise moment, a white-blue orb appeared just in front of the statue. It grew in size until it started shooting beams of light in multiple directions at once. A black cloud seemed to spread across the floor until it reached the ends of the lights. The orb expanded until it basically replaced all of the clouds. When it retracted, a dozen red-eyed robots holding weapons were left in its wake. The targeting systems identified them as Vex units. They were a brown color with different body styles. About 8 of them had cone-shaped heads with a red eye in the center and bodies that thinned out until there waist and legs with a white light directly in the middle of their torso; these were called Goblins. There was a similar unit with what looked like less armor with a smaller and a t-shaped head that gave the illusion of horns on the sides. It still had the same red eye in the center of its head and a white light in its torso. These Hobgoblins also had long tails that looked like they were made of individual links that looked just as deadly as the previous one and the one after it. The last type of unit present was one called a Minotaur. They were much larger than the other units and thickly armored all over without the white light in the center. It was a menacing figure and thankfully there was only one.

I suspected that the white light was some sort of weak point. I needed to hit that, but once the plasma begins flying, who knows what part of them I'll hit. I let lose the fire. Rounds sped away from my gun at amazing speeds and into a pair of Goblins. One shot struck the center light. The Goblin flew apart and the only remnants of it was droplets of a white liquid that fell onto the ground. I quickly reloaded while the Vex looked at where their comrades had just been. Some of the white liquid got on a few of the nearby units. They fanned out. Two of the three Hobgoblins disappeared and teleported to the second floor of the area and took a sniping position. The third stayed in the center, near the statue.

Red plasma fire ripped through the air and sizzled just above my head. I used the corner of the cover and fired off a couple shots at a Goblin starting to move up to my position. I shifted back into cover and clutched the grenade in my left hand. I went to the left corner of the cover. I peered over the cover and lined up my throw. However, something was wrong with the grenade.

When I moved, I noticed that there was a metallic ringing sound from within the grenade. It was also a bit heavier. I threw the grenade anyway in the center of the Hobgoblin in the center and the Minotaur. The grenade was a white orb with a purple outline as it flew in a perfect arc towards its target. It exploded on contact, but instead of creating the void field, it scattered into many explosions after an initial burst; the scattered pieces exploded when they either touched the Hobgoblin or Minotaur or burst midair.

The Hobgoblin was launched into the air and landed hard into the lip that served as a boundary between the first and second floors of the area. I could see that one of its legs was gone and all lights that once were in its torso and head were nonexistent. I went back into cover as a couple of bolts struck the armor on my chest; others narrowly missed by only inches to nearly nothing at all. These robots were not messing around.

I leaned out of cover again and took out the Hobgoblin on the right side of the top floor as well as a Goblin. I slammed another clip in and stood up to try and suppress the Vex into cover. Just as I turned around, a large red bolt of energy hit the center of my helmet. The impact knocked me to the ground and sent my HUD into a complete white chaos. I couldn't see anything, and the pain sensors in my face felt like they were going to overload at any moment. I was grabbing the front screen of the helmet and writhing on the ground, no doubt a pitiful sight. The white seemed to dim in the center. After a few precious seconds, I realized that I was looking at the palms of my gloves. There was a large hole in the center of the helmet and cracks throughout what was left.

I had no choice now. I ripped off the helmet and tossed it to the side. My head was completely exposed, and the shields were disabled due to the armor not being complete. At least the helmet had done its job. I had four enemies left, possibly more.

I scrambled back into cover and peered out of the right side. Pain suddenly ripped through my back as two plasma bolts struck just below the left shoulder and dead center. No doubt there were holes in the cloak, but that was the least of my worries. I fell forward slightly from the shots, but turned around enough to let loose three shots into the Goblin that assaulted me. It fell dead within three shots. After shooting down the last Goblin, I glided up onto the second floor and leaned against a pillar as the long beam of the Hobgoblin's shot sliced the air right next to me. I turned the corner and put a shot straight into the white light on its chest. Like the Goblin that died in a similar way, it exploded into several pieces and left that white liquid behind.

I didn't get to revel in the glory of that shot as the boom of a cannon thundered against the walls. I suddenly was lifted several feet in the air by something I never saw coming. I righted myself before hitting the ground and saw that the Minotaur was still alive and shooting despite the likely heavy damage it took from the grenade. I emptied the last few rounds in the clip into it. The purple shield that surrounded it shrugged them off like if I had thrown a rock at thick-plated steel.

I started to reload when a large purple blast came flying at me. In my rush to roll out of the way, I dropped the MIDA Multi-Tool with a metallic thud on the ground. The purple blast that landed just in front of it launched the weapon several feet further away than I was already from it. There wasn't any time to run back and get it. I had no idea how long I would last against these explosive rounds hammering me on impact. I quickly formed a plan that was extremely risky, but it may work. I just didn't know how I would execute it and come out unscathed. It was my only chance.

I opened my right hand and started funneling all the rage I started feeling into an orb that would be probably my most powerful yet. I charged forward with my right arm trailing slightly behind me growing the orb. About 10 feet from the Minotaur something gave me the feeling to jump at that very moment. I leapt at that moment and received a slight boost in speed from a blast the Minotaur had just fired in my direction. I went straight through the shield and released the orb's energy straight into the head of the Minotaur as I crashed into it. The head went flying away, but it still operated. In that instant, I grabbed its empty neck with my right hand right after the melee and hung at its back. It aggressively tried to reach around and yank me off of its back. The Minotaur also tried twisting, but I remained on. I squeezed my left hand as I hung on its back.

The sound of the individual explosives inside rung dully as I was tossed around. I waited for the moment, and when it started to sling me left again, I let go with my right hand, threw the grenade straight down into its neck, and jumped away using its back a base to do so. I flipped around as the many explosions of the grenade completely obliterated the Minotaur's body without any sort of resistance. I landed on the toes of my boots and used my right hand to slow the momentum. I ended up in a three-point stance but stayed like that for not even a few seconds. I dropped my knees and relaxed my back and shoulders. I looked down at the ground, relieved and amazed that I had just lived through that.

"Do you see?" A voice said from behind me. Heavy footsteps thudded behind me until the Stranger came into view with her arms folded across her chest. She seemed to be examining the carnage with an eye for detail. Not sure what she was looking for, I swear I killed them all. "Do you see why you and your other Guardians have no chance against these Vex? They are indestructible."

"But we just killed these units here," Starco piped up as he appeared just to my left. "Obviously they aren't invincible."

"That's where you're wrong Little Light," the Stranger replied cooly but with purpose. She started pacing slowly around the area. "Their numbers are infinite. It's just like a Hydra. Destroy a few units, and dozens more are ready to replace it. Until we destroy the Heart, the Darkness will always be one step ahead of you and your Traveler..."

I cut her off, "What are these Vex?"

She looked at me sternly. "Honestly, I don't have time to explain but to give you the short version. The Vex are an ancient evil so dark that other darkness despises it."

'A typically cryptic response coming from her,' I thought.

'I know right,' Starco responded in my head.

We were quiet for a moment, but she kept pacing slowly. Something seemed different about her. Her body language seemed almost ashamed or embarrassed, almost as if she was…"You were the one shooting at me earlier," I accused, standing up at the same time.

The Stranger stopped and stood rigid. Her reaction said everything I needed to know. "So what if I was?"

"For someone who works for someone that has taken interest in me, you sure seem to be bent on killing me."

"I'm testing you, but it's over now." She turned away for a second and seemed to be speaking into comms link. "Yes. I know...I'm here with them now...You know that's not necessarily possible...Fine. I'll be there shortly." The Stranger turned to me and Starco, but seemed to be looking beyond us. I followed her gaze and saw the Vex that had assaulted me while I was down. It was only maimed and couldn't attack. We walked with the Stranger over to where it lay.

The Goblin was severely injured and wasn't going to last much longer. It was missing an arm and fluids were leaking out of a decent sized hole in its upper torso closer to the center than the attached arm. I stopped about 5 feet in front of it, but the Stranger walked over to it and gave it one look over. "You fought well just now," she put a boot on the blinking white light, "but where our paths cross, ground could break." She emphasized the last word as she pushed down on her boot hard, killing the Vex unit. Starco backed away to where I was.

"You're not a Guardian are you?" he asked.

"No Little Light. Some of us weren't forged in the light." The Stranger turned away again. "At any rate, our goal is the same: to eradicate the darkness. To do that, we need to infiltrate the Black Garden and eradicate the heart that controls the Vex. You have heard of the Black Garden, right?"

"We've heard the legends," Starco said.

The Stranger started pacing again as if pondering our answer. Starco whispered to me, "We need to consult the Awoken if we want to find the Black Garden."

"Ah yes," the Stranger said. "The Awoken, dwindling between the light and the dark. A side should always be taken Little Light. Even if it's the wrong side." I could hear radio chatter; the Stranger put her hand to the side of her head. "...Too late, returning. How many? Alright, hold position, cut the engines, and DON'T let them find you." She turned around, drew her weapon and disappeared in a flash of white light, leaving Starco and I alone.

"Where are the Awoken anyways?" I asked.

"They reside in the Reef, the last place the Traveler's light touches." Starco examined one of the dead Vex. "Can we just stay here with the murderous robots?"

I gave a silent chuckle. "No, Little Light."

Starco turned around. "Don't do that."


	17. Factions and Illusion

Chapter 17

Factions and Illusion

"Can you fix it?" I asked, holding out my helmet with its shattered glass. The Vex had done a bit more considerable damage than I had once thought. Burn marks from the plasma dotted every inch of my armor. Part of the tails on the cloak had been singed away and torn. Honestly, I thought it looked better that way; it showed the scars of battle. In my opinion, armor wasn't actually armor until it had a few dings in it.

Eva Levante, the Guardian outfitter, took a look at it. She examined the small remnants of the glass in the front, thoroughly cracked. She was an older human lady in multi-colored clothing. Her hair was short and blonde, and her face had a grandmotherly yet experienced look to it. Currently, it was wrinkled in concentration as she turned the helmet over and over again. She looked up from the helmet. "I'm sorry Warlock. I can't repair it to be fit for duty. The sensors within the glass are something that I just can't fix, not to mention the condition of the glass. If you want, I can replace the SMART glass with normal glass and it could be a trophy of some sort. I would talk with some of the factions and see if they give you some sort of starter kit. Have you joined one yet?"

"Factions?" I asked.

"I thought that you wouldn't know. There aren't many left after the Faction Wars. Before that, there was something around 20 maybe. Now, there are only 3 main ones with a newer one in its beginning stages. The first one is called 'New Monarchy.' They're that bunch around the corner in the red and white led by Executor Hideo. They believe that the City's power should be held in an elected Monarch with the Speaker as a sort of advisor than political power. Dead Orbit is led by Arach Jalaal in the Tower Hangar. Their belief is something along the lines of that the City won't survive another major attack and that we need to get off of Earth as soon as possible. Not a really happy bunch, they dress in black and white for some reason, but the weapons their gunsmiths produce are unmatched. The last major one is the Future War Cult. They are also located in the Tower Hangar headed by Lakshmi-2. They have a strange color scheme of orange, purple, and white, but they make up for it in military strategy and strength. The Cult seem convinced that another war with the Darkness is imminent, so they're beefing up their membership with Guardians like the others. Honestly, you'll need to align with one eventually. They'll provide you with better armor and weaponry than the Vanguard can."

"Definitely an interesting bunch. I'll speak with them. Thank you for your time," I said with a nod and exited the small, claustrophobic area the Outfitter worked in. I stepped into the open area of the North Tower and saw the red banners of the New Monarchy group. However, I didn't see anybody there. Same thing with the Dead Orbit and Future War Cult people.

Confused, I went back to the Tower Plaza with the intention of going back to the room, but Starco spoke up just before I called the lift. "I just got a message from the Postmaster. We have three packages waiting for us. It's that building in the center. Kadi 55-30 is waiting for you to pick them up." I turned around and walked over to where the robot was tending the mail. I had to wait in line for a few minutes as two Titans picked up mail of their own, but I didn't have anywhere to be. When I got the package, I assumed they were all tied up into one covered in a large, brown cardboard box. The box was about two feet tall and a little over four feet in length. Just as I was about to walk away, Kadi stacked a second large package on top of the first but about 3 feet long and 2 and a half feet high. The third box she set on top of the other top was much smaller, probably 6 inches long by maybe three inches high. "Transaction complete," Kadi said after placing the last box on the stack. It was a typical AI response, but I couldn't help but think 'How primitive.'

I nodded and took my packages with me down the lift and to my room. I separated each box on the desk and took the smallest one to the bed and ripped the cardboard off. Three smaller boxes slid off of one another on the bed, faintly looking like the ancient Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each box seemed to come from the three main factions Eva had talked about. A red one with a white singular triangle and small slanted dashes in it indicated New Monarchy. There was a purple one with a simple FWC design on it. The "F" had an orange stripe and red stripe behind it; the "C" had two dots (the same colors). The third was from Dead Orbit with probably the most creative logo of the three. As Eva had said, it was black, white, as well as gray. It comprised of three circles: an outer white one with a gray one in the center and a much smaller gray one, presumably Earth's Moon or the Traveler, out to the right. The two were connected by a black space between the outer and inner circles. The symbol in the middle was reminiscent of a "T" with a slant towards the top. Three vertical and small lines were placed beneath the misshapen "t." I opened each hastily. The tops came easily off of the boxes revealing three bonds. Each bond was flat until I touched it; they hardened into a large metal ring the same size as the green one I wore on my left arm. Each bond was the faction's main color on the top stripe with a metal gray on the bottom. Each also featured the factions logo in the center.

I set them to the side and opened up the second box. New Monarchy sent chest armor that was mainly white with a section of red on the top and their white logo on the upper left side. Dead Orbit sent black and white gauntlets with white gloves with black on the knuckles. The Future War Cult sent a red helmet similar to the one I started with originally with orange on the sides, meeting in the middle. There was a red stripe of metal on the back with purple approximately where a human or Awoken's ears would be.

The third box unveiled three weapons: a purple sniper rifle from the Future War Cult, a red hand cannon from New Monarchy, and a gray and white camouflage machine gun from Dead Orbit.

I had no idea how these things got sent to me, but I wasn't about to complain. Gifts were gifts. I changed into the new armor and equipped the new sniper rifle, leaving the other two weapons in Starco's seemingly infinite storage. I then noticed something green sitting on the bed. Originally, I must have missed it against the green blanket and sheets, but now I saw it. The object was a small cylinder, brown on the outside with a dark green inner circle. I picked it up. It weighed as if it were nothing but air. Starco scanned it. "It's a shader called Broadsword. There's a special message within its data. 'Thought you could use this as you'll probably look and feel ridiculous. Your friend.' There's no signature, but whoever this was probably had something to do with those packages. Let's test the shader. Put the circular part in the center of the chest piece and watch all of your armor change colors."

I adjusted the cylinder so that it was aligned properly. I hadn't even touched it to my armor yet, and the area around it was already turning a green color. It took a light push against it to flow into my armor and completely change its color. No longer was I a hodge-podge of conflicting logos and colors; I was covered in a forest-styled camouflage that ancient militaries used long ago. The logos were still there, but the colors were the same throughout every piece, including the helmet.

I took off the helmet and watched it disappear into in a flash of blue light. I moved the boxes back onto the table and sat down on the bed, activating the holo-screen tv as I sat down. Coverage of the second baseball game was on. The Sunsingers weren't doing too hot today, down 3-0 in the bottom on the 7th inning with two outs. The camera cut to the dugout where it showed a larger human of African descent talking with the manager of their team, the Rockets. I had no idea who he was, but apparently he was pretty good. A gray graphic flashed on the bottom of the screen: "Austin Gray; No hitter through 7 innings." I watched for a few more minutes, but didn't pay much attention. I was more concerned about how I would get into the Black Garden.

"Starco, how are our attempts to reach the Awoken?" I asked.

"No response. Honestly, I think we may have to take the initiative and just go over there."

"I don't feel like getting shot down in the Reef."

"True, but still…"

"We'll give them a few days to respond. Space is vast." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the messaging device I bought after the first game. No messages. I shut off the holo-screen and pushed the device back into its pocket. Arla and Lee were no doubt still at that game, and I should wait for them before doing anything, but I couldn't take just sitting around. I jumped up from the bed and grabbed my weapons.

"What are you doing?" Starco asked.

"I can't just sit around waiting for orders. Let's go take a look at the cosmodrome. Maybe find a little bit of trouble along the way," I responded slinging the purple sniper rifle over my shoulder. The door hissed open and I stepped through and made my way to the hangar. I heard Starco sigh behind me.

I looked through the black scope of the rifle. A Dreg was walking around all alone approximately 75m from where I was. I leveled the reticle on its unsuspecting head and squeezed the trigger. There was a sharp burst of sound followed by the almost inaudible scream of a light blue energy-infused bullet. The shot thudded directly in its chest, and it died upon impact.

I snapped the gun up and removed the textured clip and shoved in a new one. It wasn't a large clip by any means, holding only 4 rounds, but it was certainly powerful enough in each shot to kill in one or, rarely, two shots. Of course, I hadn't had the weapon for too long. I've been perched in the ruins of a building overlooking a large portion of The Steppes. There was some plant growth on the walls, but it was a decent vantage point perfect for sniping. I turned to Starco who was floating around not far behind me. "How many does that make?" I asked, strapping the weapon back on my back and sitting up against the wall. I also checked the holster on my waist for New Monarchy's hand cannon; it was there as expected while the Multi-Tool was in Starco's inventory for now.

"If I'm not mistaken, 48. How does it feel?" Starco replied, somewhat distracted by whatever he was observing.

"A little bit much on the recoil, but it hits so much harder than the other one did. Do you think that those Iridium-cored bullets would work in it? I don't have them on me, but just in case I wanted to use them."

"I'm not sure. You'd need to talk to the Gunsmith about that. I'm fairly certain he could reforge the gun to handle them for a decent price."

"Hmm." I moved back to the open space where I'd been sniping from. Nothing had seen me yet, and wouldn't because if anything got close, I would shoot it before any reinforcements got close. I looked out over the area. There was a squad of Dregs led by a Vandal scouring the area for some sort of treasure that would please whomever they served. The fiery sun was a red giant in the sky as evening began setting on the still frozen area. I was suddenly reminded of an experience in the Allied Earth Army about 6 months or so before that last battle. "We were perched in a wartorn skyscraper in a place once known as New York City..."

I sat up against the overturned desk that I had rested against for the past few hours. My commanding officer, Lieutenant Vixen-64, had been taking point overnight while I shut down for about 4.5 hours. He was sitting on an office chair looking out over the ruined metropolis that had been full of life months before. Now, it was a wasteland crawling with Fallen and crumbling buildings. There had been a cosmodrome here, but like four others, it had been raided by the Fallen. This time, it had been the House of Kings on their fierce campaign through the United States. Their president had long since evacuated to Hawaii as North and South America had been decimated from coast to coast. Vixen and I were there to gather some intelligence in a nearby command center.

The snow was fresh and blended in perfectly with our white armor. It was far from silent as I walked over there, but it was more of a smash and grab operation anyway.

"Figure out their schedule yet?" I asked.

"It's been three days and no progress," his husky voice flowed effortlessly. "The times seem completely random."

"Let me see the list." Vixen pulled out the notepad and handed it to me. It was a list of times when they had changed guards in front of the door. He was right; there was no pattern whatsoever to the amount of time they would change the guard. Some were out for an hour, others 4 hours. "I see."

"See what?" he asked.

"I meant that I also see that there is no pattern. I do have an idea though."

"Does this involve thermite and C-4 like Topeka?"

"No no no. This is a bit more stealthy."

"What do you have in mind?"

"So what I was thinking is that we could take out the guards that are currently there. One of us busts in there and distracts the majority of their forces while the other one of us sneaks in the other side gets the information and we both pull out before they even know the information is missing."

Vixen thought for a moment. "It's better than any plan I've got. How about if one of us stays here and snipes to draw their attention. Maybe shoot one of the windows down there to really bug them. I'd prefer you do the sniping from here. You bring The Boomstick?"

The Boomstick was an extremely powerful sniper rifle with a huge barrel and equally huge round. It was originally an Anti-Vehicle weapon, but desperate times brought out desperate measures. In all honesty, if this gun hit anywhere on any living thing, their body parts would be spread out over several yards. It wasn't a pretty sight, but when one round can take out four or five units at one time, it was deemed necessary.

I grabbed the 6.5 foot long gun and loaded a 7-round clip full of the monstrous bullets. I pulled out its bipod and set it down on the ground facing the window. Vixen started grabbing his gear and stepped towards the stairs. He turned just in front of them and said, "If things go sour, get out of here as soon as you can. No use in losing two good soldiers, especially one as young as you are. I'm transferring the activation permissions for the ship to you. Get in position and prepare to fire on my mark."

It took him five minutes or so to get down the seven or so flights of stairs to the ground floor. I was lying on the floor, gazing through the scope of the high-powered rifle. The air was deathly still. Vixen moved closer to the building across the street and took cover in an alley just around the corner from the two Vandals standing guard. Vixen took used the snow as a sort of camouflage and got just a few feet from the first Vandal. "Now," he whispered into the mic. Simultaneously, I shot one and he stuffed a knife into the other. I could see that his armor had a bit of blue mostly on the right side.

Two Captains, three Vandals, and a horde of Dregs rushed out of the building as soon as they heard the gunshot. Vixen took cover in the alley again while I quickly fired off four shots, obliterating all but two Dregs and severely wounding the remaining Captain. Vixen moved up wordlessly and took out the remaining enemies with ease.

As he moved towards the door, I kept the gun trained on the doors. Nothing else had come through yet. The building was six or seven stories. Either we had underestimated their numbers, or they laid a trap. I radioed him, "I don't like this. There should be more of them."

"I agree," Vixen replied.

"Yes," an extremely rough voice said behind me. It had a beastly tone to it. I dropped the rifle and made a grab for my sidearm. A heavy boot slammed into my back, pinning me to the floor. Several guns trained themselves on me in my defenseless state. I tried using my hands to push the boot off of me but to no avail. A powerful kick to my head sent my vision spinning and my only means of communicating with Vixen over the ledge.

Somehow, I was able to grab one of my incendiary grenades and give it a quick flick of the wrist to send it behind me. Their response was immediate. A loud and harsh roar echoed throughout the area just before it exploded, sending all four of my assailants flying in all directions of the room. I jumped up and searched frantically for my comm link. I grabbed it just as a bright light blinded me and an invisible force forcibly shoved me into the wall at the back of the room. The deafening roar of an explosion filled every part of the room for several minutes.

When the light faded and the roar ceased, I stumbled over to the window where I had once been. Every building on that block was nothing but a black crater.

"...I could only stare until the building began shaking. I barely escaped when the reinforcements charged into the building…" I trailed off still staring out into the distance.

"Some story. Why couldn't I access that one from your memory banks? I understand why, but how?" Starco asked.

"I locked it and transferred it as part of an incognito file attached to another memory."

"Complex."

"Complex indeed." I sat down on the ground. A pair of Dregs were examining some sort of machine within a rusted building. The machine let loose a salvo of sparks and sent them skidding across the floor. Suddenly, a soft tap came at my shoulder. I stood up and spun around immediately, reaching for the hand cannon at the same time.

I levelled the gun at the person's head and prepared to fire. Her hands immediately went up, "Whoa, whoa Maximus it's me."

I holstered the hand cannon. "Sorry Arla." She must have come straight from the baseball game. "How'd the game go?"

"It went fine. We got shut out, but their pitcher gave our team a free base and ruined his perfect game. I'll tell you more about it later." Arla's demeanor suddenly changed. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me back towards the stairs that led back into the main area of the Steppes.

I pulled my hand back. "What's the rush? Where's Lee?"

"Not important. We need to get back to the Tower now." Her voice sounded urgent. Something was wrong. Lee would be here if Arla was here. The armor also a different color. The hood was black rather than brown; this wasn't Arla.

The hand grabbed my arm again. I snatched back the imposter's arm, freed the gripped hand, and pulled an arm around "her" throat. "She" struggled against my grip as I held on fiercely. "Who are you?! And what did you do with Arla?!"

"I AM Arla!" the imposter gasped still struggling.

"No! You're a wolf in sheep's clothing." I shoved "her" into the back wall of the hollowed building I was in. I charged shoulder-first into the imposter's chest and pinned "her" against the wall. I snatched the knife from the belt that "she" wore and held it to her throat. "TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!" I shouted. I ripped the imposter's helmet.

A holographic image of Arla's face flickered in and out leaving a blue, bald, female Awoken in its place. Her eyes were shut as she struggled beneath my arm, but then the image changed again. The Awoken face morphed into the head of a deep green Vandal. It kicked me in the chest and started to run. I shifted the knife from my left hand to my right and tossed it so fast that it must m nm,. literally sliced the air. The knife slammed into the Vandal's head and it fell over dead. The Hunter armor must have been a hologram too as it disappeared not long after it fell.

I took a second to recover. "Starco, who or what was that?" He hovered over the corpse for a moment.

"I thought they were just a myth. The Fallen House of Illusion. A secret band of operatives within the Fallen ranks. Judging by some of the red marks on other parts of its armor, this one was employed by the House of Kings. It seems that we're near the top of their list if they're copying Arla like that."

"Yeah well, they can get in line. My question is why is this the House of Kings? Wasn't it a Wolf Baroness that I killed?"

"I don't want to know. Last I checked, the Wolves were under the watch of the Awoken Queen. Then again, what information the Awoken have given us has been vague. A recent report briefly referenced some sort of uprising, but I assumed that it was a tax protest or something."

"That's not our main concern. We need to get into the Black Garden."

"Well, if they're worried about a revolt, then we may not get an answer for some time."

"What are you suggesting?"

"We may have to be a bit ambitious and go there ourselves."

"And risk getting shot down? I don't know if you noticed, but our ship doesn't exactly have the latest offensive and defensive capabilities. We wouldn't get past one fighter, let alone an entire squadron!" I found myself practically shouting.

"We're arguing again…" Starco said quietly, as if it were an afterthought. He was angled slightly downward as well.

"You're darn right! We're in a rut that we can't do anything about!"

"I wouldn't call it a rut…"

Energy surged throughout my body. It seemed to swell every part of me and run like electricity through every inch of my being. My vision had a slight purple tint at the edges. I had no idea how to unleash it. My anger turned into rage and I could feel energy concentrating at my fingertips; I knew that orbs were forming. Starco backed away. "You may want to jump in a second."

"WHY IS THAT?!"

"You're Super Charged. You need to release that energy otherwise the systems will overload and you'll need more than just a new ship. Especially since this is the first time."

I ignored Starco's comment and suddenly charged forward out the side of the torn building towards the place where I saw those two Dregs earlier. My movement seemed faster than I recalled. I felt like I was leaving a blazing trail of fire behind me. About 10m from the other building, Several Dregs and Vandals noticed me charging towards them at a breakneck speed. They began firing at me, but I didn't feel any of the impacts. I leapt into the air and crossed my arms on my chest. The power reached its climax at the top of the jump. I threw my arms back to my sides. Three large orbs of purple light flew straight at the group of Fallen. They exploded on impact with a force that shook the ground like an earthquake. Everything in front of me was a translucent wall of purple for several seconds. Nothing remained of the enemies that had been there only a few seconds earlier.

I crashed into the ground. All the energy I had a few seconds ago disappeared as I lay on the ground. I was motionless as Starco appeared over my head. "Feel better now?"

My rage dissipated along with my energy. I stared at the darkening sky. A new meter appeared just above the ammo counter on my HUD. It moved extremely slowly and was just barely a sliver, growing at a frustratingly slow rate.

"Yeah," I said weakly, sitting up at the same time. A pair of medium pitched beeps sounded inside my helmet.

"Incoming communication from Ikora," Starco said, disappearing back into my suit.

I opened the channel. Ikora stood with a blank expression on her face. She stood at one of the computers that surrounded the pit that surrounded the Vanguard. I could see Cayde and Zavala looking over a holo-map in the background. She spoke steadily with what seemed to be a subtle hint of excitement in her voice. "Maximus. We need you to come to the Tower. We have a mission for your fireteam."

Hey, it's SFR. Just wanted to make a small note at the end of this chapter. Nothing major, just wanted to thank every single one of you for reading this. Honestly, it makes my day to not only write these. For the moment, I have a poll on my profile about which Exotic weapon I should put in the story next.


	18. Pre-op Problems

Chapter 18

Pre-op Problems

"...Our target is Sepiks Prime," Ikora Rey continued during the briefing. "It is one of the House of Devils' Servitors, if not the main one. We know he resides inside a place translated as 'The Devils' Lair' though we do not know conclusively where that is. Scout teams in the Cosmodrome have located an area not far from the Rocketyard maps reference as 'The Blast.' Judging by the pictures their Ghosts sent back to us…" Several pictures of a mostly barren area with a destroyed building near the back and a large crater in the middle flashed on the screen. A large tank sat guarding a closed door behind it. Another picture showed the ruins of a building near the tank with an ancient forklift in it. There was another hiding place directly across. "...As you can see, there is a Fallen Walker on guard, and we theorize that this one is tougher than the ones that attacked the Wall."

Lee interrupted. "What makes you say that?"

Ikora's eyes glanced at the other Vanguard leaders flanking her. Zavala gave a slight nod. Ikora sighed but said, "Because, that Walker wiped out that fireteam within five minutes of engagement. The details aren't important. Whatever that thing is guarding, it's important, and it's likely The Devils' Lair. Get in, get out, destroy Sepiks Prime. You leave tomorrow at 9 am. Good luck to you Guardians." We stood up, saluted, and began to walking out silently. "Maximus, a word," Commander Zavala's voice called out.

I motioned Arla and Lee onward and turned around. "Something you need?" I asked once they left. Starco floated above my shoulder.

Zavala started. "We heard about your excursion to Venus."

"H-How did you…?" I stammered. I looked at my shoulder.

Starco still hovered there but moved back some. "I told them." he admitted. "Trying to get into the Black Garden needs the Vanguard"s help too."

"He's right," Ikora piped up. "We have resources that you can access…"

"Like a ship?" I interrupted.

"Yes. Like a ship, but you need to do your mission first. It's only been a month or two, but we've accomplished much more since you've gotten here…"

Cayde-6 sternly said, "But it remains to be seen if YOU are the catalyst or this is some sort of coincidence."

His words were daggers. I don't know what I did to him to make him so cold, but that wasn't my main concern. I wanted to melee him across the room for that. I've risked my life while he stands behind a table. I swallowed my anger. "Understood. sir."

"Good man," Zavala added. "Now get out there." I saluted them and proceeded out of the room.

"And don't do anything stupid!" Cayde yelled harshly as I exited.

Once the door shut, I turned towards Starco. "What were you thinking?! Did you not hear her?! She'll kill Arla and Lee! You can't just go around telling people things that can hurt them too."

Starco got defensive. "Yeah well, we need to end this war! Casualties happen. You of all people should know that. You're a Guardian; you DIED all that time ago in a doomed mission that was nothing but a distant hope for success."

"So you don't care about our teammates?"

"That not what I meant Maximus. They are our brother and sister in battle, but we are all soldiers here willing to die for the greater good. We sometimes have to sacrifice a few to save many. We can't be selfish with our lives, especially when certain forces seek to cut it short anyway!"

"I haven't been selfish with my life. I went ALONE to Venus and faced the Vex. We went to the Cosmodrome and nearly got killed by that imposter. The Wall needed defending and we answered the call along with practically every other Guardian here…"

"But some didn't some back. They were the selfless ones, not us. We've received the glory that should honor them."

"What glory?!"

"Let's see...You're in an exclusive group headed by the Vanguard, you've got a powerful exotic weapon in your inventory, you won a baseball game basically with one swing of the bat and a lot of luck. Glory is all around you. By the time either you fall or we are victorious, you can become legend. Only by final death can you truly be selfless to our cause."

"So what about the Vanguard then? They stand behind a table in the safety of the Tower! Isn't that a bit selfish."

"Each of them has proven their worth. You haven't."

I took a moment to think. I needed to choose my next words carefully. "I don't fight for glory. I fight for the greater good. A soldier who lives to fight another day is more useful than a dead one. You remember that vision the Traveler sent me. If that turns out to be true, then I'm going to need my entire fireteam to take on the Heart and all those Vex."

I turned on my heel and walked to the lift to take me to my room. I didn't talk to Starco the rest of the night.

The alarm went off at 7:30. I grabbed one of the bonds (I didn't pay attention to which) and activated my armor. I was still mad at Starco for what he did yesterday. I went for a jog around the Tower to cool off. The Sun was just starting to rise over the distant mountains, and the Traveler was painted a bright orange by the Sun's light. It was a beautiful sight that seemed to calm me more than the jog. There was nobody in the Plaza at the time, so I stopped and admired the scenery.

Today was a new day with new challenges to face. In the distance, I saw the hole in the Wall about halfway to being repaired. No doubt the people were still working feverishly with Guardians to get everything fixed. I predicted that at any given point there was two or three dozen snipers at the ready, prepared to shoot anything that may try to come out of the woods. Of course, Wall security had greatly increased at every sector since the attack, but there was little to no activity anywhere but there.

I looked down on a small business district in the City. People bustled about while public transit hovered several feet above their heads. I wondered how many of them were aware that at any given point, some sort of non-Fallen enemy could break the atmosphere and raid the city just as the Fallen had attempted once already. Truthfully, it wasn't a matter of if they tried again, but when.

I leaned forward against the rail. As I stared at the Traveler in its broken state, something seemed different. There was some sort of connection, a relaying of data between myself and the Protector of the City. What remained of my anger melted away, understanding crept its way into my mind. It was as if the Traveler was justifying Starco's actions. A moment of epiphany flashed into my mind. Starco was right; we need the help of the Vanguard if we want to even get close to the Black Garden. Besides, the Stranger can't possibly know what goes on behind closed doors, especially if those doors are in the Tower. Lee and Arla were safe from the fate of being murdered by her, for now.

"AHH!" I yelled into the morning air, slamming my fist on the bar at the same time. "I hate it when you're right."

Starco sent a thought, 'You better not forget it. You done?'

'Fine,' I replied. I heard something that sounded like a pebble clattering across concrete. I immediately looked towards the sound's direction. An almost transparent form was standing just to my left. It was mostly an outline, but I could tell that the form was also leaned against the rail. I turned back to the Traveler; the connection with it seemed to have severed. "You're not very stealthy," I stated bluntly.

The transparent outline became more definite. White armor and a purple face, Layma was also leaning on the rail along with me with a black hooded cape contrasting the armor. "Wasn't trying to be," she said cooly. "Been some time, eh Maximus?"

"Comparing to recent events, not really. A week or two?"

"True. What are you up to?"

"Just thinking and venting some steam. I've been frustrated the last day or two."

"How so?"

"I found some...information."

"You paused. You and I both know that kind of pause means you're hiding something. What is it?"

"I've found a way we can gain some leverage, but nobody's cooperating enough for me to get anything done."

"Can I do anything?"

"Got a way to communicate with the Awoken?"

Layma thought for a minute. "Have you tried…"

"The Vanguard? Yes. No response yet. I sent a message myself as well with no luck."

"What about that Huntress in your fireteam? Crap what's her name...Arn? Aki? Amina?"

"You mean Arla."

"Yes. That's the one. Word is that she was royalty before she renounced her citizenship in the Reef."

"Wouldn't that make her an outcast though? They wouldn't listen to someone like that. Besides, Arla never told me that she used to be royalty; just that she once lived amongst the Awoken in the Reef."

"The royalty is only speculation, but still. You should at least ask. We may be more powerful in our Guardian forms, but this doesn't make us an unstoppable force. Your fireteam is there to support you."

"I know that!" I said rather loudly. Layma took a step back but then her demeanor changed.

She grabbed my collar and pulled me down to where we were eye level with each other. "I don't believe that you do. You ventured into the Crucible by yourself and got severely injured, jumped near Fallen tanks when they were falling quickly, and who knows what else! You cannot go to the Reef or Mars by yourself and expect to survive. The Awoken will send you to the Exclusion Zones on Mars and will rip you apart."

"Wait a minute, what do you they'll send me to Mars?"

She let go of my collar. "The Awoken believe that the Tower has stolen many of its citizens to fight off a fictional enemy. They don't understand. YOU don't understand," Layma muttered.

"Don't understand what?" I was thoroughly confused. I never realized how many things I had tried to do alone. Maybe that's what Starco meant by selfish. I started feeling bad; I swear I had been doing things for the Traveler.

Layma just stared at me. "I LOST MY FIRETEAM ON MARS! BOTH OF THEM!" She yelled. Her voice echoed into the distance.

We were silent for several awkward seconds. Finally, Layma spoke up but only in a slight whisper. "The Awoken will purposely try to kill you and your friends."

"Surely, you'll get another fireteam." I attempted to comfort her. This railing was pretty much the only thing separating her from joining her fallen teammates. I put my arm around her shoulder. I couldn't tell if it was sadness or the fatigue from anger that made her slouch over against the rail, as if putting all of her weight on it.

Her entire being tensed up immediately as my arm encircled her, but she relaxed after a few seconds. Much more solemn compared to her previous anger, Layma said, "They will, but it means that someone will have to die in order for that to happen." She perked up, and I retracted my arm. "Guess I'll have to soldier on for now then. Wall duty isn't that bad after all."

"Very true. Just message me if you need something. Maybe we can convince the Vanguard to allow a two-person mission."

"Thanks Maximus," she said walking into the Hangar area.

I stood there for several minutes, trying to resurrect the connection with the Traveler I had just a few minutes ago. None was found. I wasn't surprised, in fact I was curious. This is the second time it's happened, but this time I didn't get knocked out for a few days.

My clock read 8:24. It was almost time to leave. As I entered the area, a shuttle was launching just as I entered, probably taking Layma and whoever else is scheduled for Wall duty. I made my way down to the floor and opened my ship. Once inside, I shed my cloak and set my weapons on the rack that I found in the small sleeping quarters. With the weapons clasped into place by locks attaching to the stock, barrel, and two around the middle, the rack retracted seamlessly into the wall. A small white light glowed on the wall just to the right of where they extended.

I heard the whirring of the engines beginning to spin and warm up. I exited the quarters and walked into the engine room. The whirring was louder, but not much louder. However, there was an odd odor to the air. Fuel? No. A piece of plastic or rubber belt? No. Smoke? That was it, and it originated from the left side of the engine.

"Starco! Cut off the engines immediately!" I commanded over the radio. "We may have a fire. Start the ventilation systems back here." I didn't hear his reply, but the engines started winding down, and the smoke grew more clear. I grabbed the toolbox magneted to the wall and unbolted the small bulkhead to the actual engine.

I could hear fans starting to turn on, but when the bulkhead opened, a large plume of smoke surged forward immediately. I shielded my face with my left forearm. I found the control panel on the wall and activated the extinguisher system via manual override. The system didn't detect any abnormal temperatures, but obviously something was irregular. I plowed my way through the blinding smoke. I clumsily clattered against the walls and other electronics as I made my way to the rear of the engine. Sparks flew as my metal clashed against that metal. The temperature hadn't changed though.

I continued blindly stumbling around. Then I heard it: a sizzling noise popping every few seconds followed by a shower of sparks not caused by me slamming against the wall. The smoke started to noticeably thin as I neared the sparks. On a now-ruined maintenance panel, a square device I recognized as a tracking beacon sat fused on it. It had malfunctioned and caused a short circuit or something like that.

"Hey Starco," I radioed. "Are we good now? From before I mean."

"What happened? I don't seem to recall," he joked.

"Good, because there was a tracking beacon on this maintenance panel back here. It shorted and caused all that smoke."

"Who knows how long its been like that. For all we know, it could have been there before we got the ship."

"Wouldn't Amanda or some other engineer have caught that though? I think one of the two strangers we know may have done it. Likely that Exo we encountered on the Moon and Venus."

"Good point. Any repairs needed? I can alert Amanda."

I placed my hand on the device and pulled down on its edge hard. It didn't budge at first but as I pulled harder, the seal eventually gave way and ripped off with a loud screech. The front face of the device also came with it. I tossed the piece to the side and made sure nothing else was going to spark; it didn't. "This screen definitely will, but it can wait. Try winding the engines again."

As they began whirring, I walked out of the engine room and back into the cockpit. I sat in the pilot's chair and flicked through various screens confirming the insignificant damage in the engines as well as the success of the warm-up sequence several minutes later.

Now to wait for Arla and Lee…


	19. The Devils' Lair

Chapter 19

The Devils' Lair

"We're coming over the Drop Zone now," I shouted as streams of plasma sliced the air around our ships. "DZ is hot, prepare to fight on landing. Clear the area and proceed; we need to get to the Devils' Lair."

Ikora's voice responded first. "Good luck to you Guardians." The feed with the Vanguard cut out.

"Doors open, prepare for the jump." I exited the pilot's seat and checked my weaponry. I had a Nova Bomb and a grenade on standby, ready for use whenever I need it. I looked out of the ramp.

The Rocketyard was an extremely cramped space lacking the room for three ships. We hovered just above one of the many buildings that would provide a straight shot to the first area of major resistance. From there, we follow the guide the previous fireteam had pieced together up until their demise.

"Ready," Arla and Lee said about the same time.

"Exit!" I exclaimed. I made a running start down the ramp and leapt just before the end. I plummeted headfirst towards the ground; air whipped around me as I fell quickly. I righted myself just before hitting the ground and activated Glide momentarily to soften the impact. Dust kicked up as I landed with a solid thud on the ground. I glanced behind me as I heard two other thuds.

The powerful Lee and nimble yet equally powerful Arla stood behind me with weapons already drawn. I unclipped the Multi-Tool and steadied it in my hands. A mix of Fallen troops took notice to the three armor-clad individuals pointing guns their direction. "Fan out!" I ordered.

Rounds of plasma fire screamed through the air between us and the Fallen. Arla and Lee filed to the left and right respectively as I moved forward, taking just as much fire as I was dealing. A Dreg charged me from the left with a pair of knives as I was reloading. It slashed vertically at my face just as I sidestepped. A pair of my bullets ripped into its torso as it realized I wasn't there anymore. Out of my helmet's peripheral, I saw a similar Dreg charging from behind me. It jumped, and I ducked. The Dreg sailed over my head with knives ready to slice into me. I grabbed its leg just before it hit and ground and slung it head first into the wall of a building next to me. A small crack that spider-webbed it the wall was now a gaping hole into a dark room that seemed empty aside from dust and its dead body.

It was deathly quiet when Arla and Lee finished their engagements. I retrieved my weapon from where I dropped it and checked the magazine and firing chamber for damage or jamming. They were clear. Lee came up from my right and slightly behind me. "You good?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I be? Just making sure I didn't break my gun."

Lee laughed. "Don't worry, it takes more than a weak drop for that thing to break."

I strapped it to my back. "Sparrows out! Let's move." I swung my right leg over and the vehicle appeared beneath me as I sat on the seat. I gunned the engine and shot it forward. The wind whistled as I shot forward at amazing speeds dodging steel beams from buildings. We entered the remains of a building that matched where we were according to the log. The hallway within was narrow which only amplified the sounds of gunfire. A strange crusty substance covered the bottom portion of the walls the farther we went.

"Fallen and Hive ahead," Starco piped up. "Let's not get caught up in the crossfire."

The sounds of battle grew louder: gunfire, stomps of a Hive Knight, cries of pain mixed with battle shrieks echoed off the walls as we approached. Arla and I took up positions against the doorway at the bottom of some stairs. Lee centered himself with the door and tossed in a flashbang grenade. Lee led the charge into the room, then me followed by Arla.

A pair of Thralls rushed forward with glowing, light blue claws. One tore through a Dreg torn between targeting us or the Hive. I fired a few shots their direction. One struck the head and the other ripped through the other Thrall's torso and leg. I took cover behind a metal crate rusted beyond all-recognition. I momentarily shared the cover with a Dreg before I meleed it across the room into the adjacent wall. I peered over the top.

There were two Acolytes...now one. Two Knights patrolled the entrance with weapons trained on our position whilst the Acolytes finished off the lone remaining Vandal. One had a small yellow mark next to its identifier. 'That means it's a Hive Major. They're a bit tougher to kill. May I suggest the super?' Starco sent via thoughts I made eye contact with Arla and Lee and motioned them back into cover. I latched my weapon to my back and counted down from three on my hands. Two nods once I got to one.

I turned the corner from cover and sprinted forward. I crossed my arms and leapt into the air. I could feel the concentrated energy grow in my hands. At the apex of my jump, I opened my hands and threw them horizontally. A bright white flash of light blinded everyone in the room but gradually faded to a purple haze with a black center. I landed hard on the ground on one knee. The Acolyte and one Knight were gone while the Major was writhing on the ground in the energy field just a foot from the center. After a few seconds, the writhing stopped and it faded into a steadily disappearing outline until nothing was there anymore. Immediately after, the field closed.

I heard the thump of boots behind me. "Nova bomb?" Arla asked. I responded with a nod. "Took care of that Major...and everything around it."

"Well, it helps. Let's keep moving," Lee said with a small chuckle.

We continued down the hallway and descended down a flight of stairs. More sounds of a battle rattled off the walls. "More Fallen and Hive in the next room. Those must have been reinforcements that clashed with the guarding Hive," Starco stated. "Prepare for a fight."

We sprinted into the room. Countless Hive and only a handful of Fallen, both of practically all classes in their respective species, fought each other as we entered. The Fallen didn't move much beyond a slightly raised vantage point with some sort of computer console a few yards in front of it. The Hive took immediate notice. A Wizard that looked to be in charge divided a portion of its troops to destroy us. Lee and Arla flanked left and distracted most of the allotted troops. The Wizard remained steadfast and started firing light blue orbs of hot plasma at me. I rolled out of the way and retaliated with an entire clip of ammunition fired as fast as my trigger finger would allow me.

The creature shrugged off each hit as if it were a pea shooter and responded by throwing a large sphere of toxic gas that expanded on impact. It created an inky blackness that ate away at my armor and shield simultaneously. I tried running, but it was like I was running through a cloud of molasses. My shields were half gone by the time I exited, but then the volleys of plasma resumed.

I clenched a grenade and threw it at the Wizard. It struck directly in the chest and sent its damaging field outward. When the grenade finished its explosive course, the Wizard was severely injured along with several Hive around it. All in the radius fell to the ground. I rushed forward firing bullets as I went until I was sure it was dead. I looked up and saw four Acolytes trying to encircle me.

My shields absorbed more hits until it was barely functioning. I Glided out of the way and started firing my own bullets at them. I continued backing away, dodging shots and firing my own. I was not going to survive much more of this and the Super Charge was only about halfway to being usable again.

I took cover behind a metal pillar and changed clips in the Multi-Tool. I leaned out and expired a trio of Acolytes attempting to ambush my cover. Peering out from cover, I could see that the Hive were mostly gone but a few Fallen remained near that machine and laser grid. Arla and Lee had largely dealt with their side of the room and were making a run on those Fallen. I crouched and steadily made my way to their position. The Fallen had just been eliminated when I got there.

Lee was looking at the laser grid and trying to figure out how to bypass it. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the grid. Immediately, the rock disintegrated and a large explosion rocked the area. Lee picked himself up of the ground and sat up. The front of every piece of armor was now a charred black but seemed to have kept its integrity, although its wearer seemed to be a bit dazed. "Well...That isn't going to work." Arla snickered behind him. "I agree," she said, holding back full-blown laughter.

I heard a small whooshing sound and, a few moments later, a blaring alarm pierced the air. "Hmm. I should probably work faster."

I turned and saw him scanning the console. "What are you doing?!" I yelled louder than I should have.

"Getting rid of the laser grid. Just chill, it's all part of the plan."

"What plan?!"

"...Ok...You got me, but it's working."

"Explain the alarm then."

"...I may have accidentally tripped an anti-hacking system and…"

I folded my arms. "And what?"

Starco's voice became quiet. "Alerted several squads of Fallen and a mob of Hive. Your yelling is not helping."

Arla stopped snickering and became very serious. "Just finish what you're doing. Maximus, get sniping while Lee and I defend head on."

I turned away from Starco and pulled out my sniper rifle. "Exactly what I was thinking." I leapt up onto the remains of a catwalk up against the wall and ducked behind some metal containers. I marked a door about 50 meters away. Arla helped Lee stand up and took aim at the left side of the area that seemed to lead to some sort of underground tunnel. Lee and his burned armor took a position pointed towards the door I was marking.

All at once, hordes of Hive and Fallen poured into the room from the doorway and tunnel. Arla was quickly overrun. She tried shooting as she retreated but even that failed as seemingly innumerable Thralls rushed forward and ripped her gun from her arms and started slashing into her. I tried picking a few of them off with my rifle but there was just too many. A harsh blue light flashed momentarily and an angry scream bounced off the walls. A light blue blur slashed within the circle of Thrall. The blur darted all around it, killing several Thrall with every slash. The circle was gone in a matter of seconds. I momentarily glimpsed Arla cloaked in a blue outline clutching two knives with arcs of electricity streaking out of them. 'She's fine,' I thought and focused back on the Fallen, but they were gone.

I pulled the scope away from my eyes and looked all around the area for Lee and the Fallen. I couldn't see them. Lee's voice, out of breath, suddenly scratched into the comms. "Maximus, I'm coming on your right side. Get your rocket launcher, lots of enemies chasing me." I spotted him immediately. Lee was sprinting around the corner where several platforms and pillars blocked him from sight. A mix of Hive and Fallen pursued him relentlessly. I dropped the sniper rifle and summoned the Unfriendly Giant out of complete instinct. I loaded a two-shot canister and took aim where the center of the group would be in a few seconds. I fired.

The rocket screamed directly in the center of the horde following Lee. The blast destroyed everything around it and was compounded by some sort of nearby explosive. All of them ragdolled: Thrall, Acolytes, Dregs...Lee.

With the results of the rocket, only a few enemies remained. The electrified Arla was dealing with them when her power drained and was left with her gun and normal knives. I picked up the rifle again and took aim at a Fallen Captain in the back of the room. Two shots took out his shield, and a third finished him before he realized where the shots were coming from. I looked off to my right towards Lee. He still lay motionless on the ground. I ducked behind the containers and got on the comms. "Lee...Lee...Are you there? What is your condition?" There was no response. A Vandal jumped onto the platform with me. I swung the sniper rifle to the right and fired twice without looking through the scope. Only one shot hit its target, but it was only a flesh wound to the leg. I charged a melee and threw him across the room

I checked the enemy count again. Three remained and they were all near Arla. I secured the the rifle on my back and pulled out the Multi-Tool again. I leapt from the platform and started unloading on a Dreg and Vandal pinning Arla behind her cover. The Dreg fell dead and the Vandal rushed forward but met with Arla's knife. She spun and fired one shot into the head of the remaining Acolyte.

I rushed over to where Lee lay. Now, blast marks covered the back of his legs in addtion to the front of his armor. I pulled him up and dragged him against a wall. Everything was limp as I dragged him. I removed his helmet and looked at his condition.

Lee was breathing, but it was light and shallow. His eyes were closed and there was a cut on the side of his head. He looked more unconcious than anything. The rough vocals of Fallen bounced aff the walls. "We need to get moving Maximus," Arla yelled across the area.

"Starco, how's that laser grid?" I asked.

"It just deactivated. Let's get moving. Do keep in mind that the tank is due to return from maintenance in about 2 minutes. We won't get there in time," he responded in my helmet.

"Can you carry him?" Arla asked. "We can't leave him here."

"I can, but what about evac?"

"We're in an enclosed space and a Darkness zone. We have no contact with our ships for now."

I sighed. "Fine. Hopefully he'll wake up within the next few minutes."

I unequipped all of my weapons besides the New Monarchy Hand Cannon. I snapped the helmet back on his head and lifted him over my shoulders.

I kept the gun in my right hand and Lee secure with my left. He was heavy but I could manage. until we ran into that tank. We proceeded through the door and followed a wide hallway into another room with several Fallen within. I nodded to Arla to kick off the firefight. She turned the corner and started firing quickly at the Fallen closest to the door. I lowered Lee onto the ground on the lip of the doorway. To my right were several Vandals and Dregs, I threw my grenade and took them all out in a matter of seconds. Arla was dealing with a Captain and his entourage.

I jumped onto the area where those Vandals had been a moment ago and flanked the Captain. He didn't know who to target. Then again, he didn't need to; he died during his indecision.

I motioned Arla towards the light outside and went back to pick up Lee. I grabbed him but stopped short of exiting the building. From the lack of gunfire, nothing was there; then again, I couldn't see Arla anywhere. There was a war torn building in the center with what looked like a solid roof. I could hide Lee inside and snipe from the roof. I sprinted towards it and used Glide to get up the building.

I landed softly on the roof but immediately sensed that I wasn't alone. I turned around and saw a Vandal and Captain in red armor standing menacingly about 7 feet in front of me. We all froze in surprise. I debated throwing Lee and pulling out my weapon but immediately tossed the idea because I didn't know how hurt he was, and the Captain could react and shoot him mid-air, killing him. The Captain started tapping something into its gauntlet as I just stood there.

Unexpectedly, the Vandal turned around to look for something as if it was tapped on the shoulder by some non-existent prankster. Just as it looked to the left and right for the fourth or fifth time, it flopped over quietly. I was confused. It just fell over and didn't get back up, and then I saw it.

There was a thin outline of someone or something prowling just behind the Captain. I couldn't see much in terms of detail, but the form seemed to be clutching a knife. It HAD to be Arla. Suddenly, the figure jumped several feet in the air and led the knife straight into the Captain's neck. 'Arla' had her feet placed firmly on its shoulders and dug the knife deeper as the struggling Captain tried to ward her off and dislodge the knife. It fell to its knees as 'Arla' twisted the knife and lost its fight with her.

The translucent form gained opacity and victoriously claimed her knife from the Captain. The figure wasn't Arla. The armor was different and differently colored. The armor was thinner and smoother. The hood and cape was stark white with no patterns on it besides some patches of dirt and plasma burns.

I set Lee down and put my left hand on the holster. Even if I don't hit whomever it is, I can sure as heck scare it away. "Who are you?" I demanded.

"Obviously the one who just saved you. Is that your teammate?" she asked, pointing at Lee lying limp on the ground.

"Yeah. Is it clear enough for evac?" I responded.

"Depends. What injured him? We need to gauge how much the Darkness has consumed him."

I was at a crossroads. Honestly, it would be a bit embarrassing to say that it was my fault, and that should he be dead, I would be responsible for his death rather than an actual enemy. So, I said, "Splash damage."

"From…" she circled her hand, indicating for me to keep going. There was a loud crash in the background, but I assumed it was nothing for now.

I got defensive. "Why does that matter?"

She raised her voice some but not a lot. "Because, it determines if we need to get an emergency evac for him or not.

I swallowed my pride. "I fired a rocket behind him when he was getting chased by Hive and Fallen. The blast radius enveloped him too."

"Did he get hit by any of them?"

"I have no idea. Since he was running, my guess is his shields were down and was escaping to let them recharge."

The unidentified Huntress tapped the bottom of her helmet with her forefinger. She crouched down to look at Lee's armor closely. "Where'd the blast marks come from?"

Arla suddenly appeared behind me (causing me to jump at the sound of her voice), "The front was from his own stupidity. The back is largely Maximus' fault." She stepped in front of me and folded her arms. One hand was kept slightly open. I could tell Arla was wary of this unidentified Guardian too.

"Hmm," she said continuing to look over Lee's armor. She swiped her hand over several dark spots on his armor. Some residue came off when she did this. "There are underlying burn marks from Arc, likely Fallen unless he's a Crucible junkie, damage. That, combined with the cracks in his chest armor and current state, means he's going to need to get looked at as soon as possible. Let me see if all this external abuse has affected his body." I stepped over and carefully removed the helmet. The cut on his head had stopped bleeding but dried blood had caked into his hair and onto his skin. A nice bruise started forming on left cheek and forehead. His breathing was still thin and ragged.

"He's in no shape to continue fighting," she concluded. "Contact his Ghost to signal his ship for evac to the Tower."

"Done," Starco said in my helmet.

"My Ghost has already done that," I said. Moments later, Lee steadily changed into a blue light and disappeared.

"I'll join your fireteam for now." A small notification appeared just above the ammunition counter. 'Huntress Advira Mezzer has joined your fireteam.' The name sounded familiar but I couldn't remember where

Just as I saw it, a large Fallen Skiff stopped on a dime in front of a large building with doors we needed to get through to face Sepiks Prime. A large, six-legged tank was attached to the bottom of the ship. The armor looked a bit more sturdy and well-designed than those we encountered at the Wall. It detached from the ship after hovering for a few seconds. Its back and middle legs let go first quickly followed by its front. The maneuver flipped the machine onto its legs rather than leaving it defenseless on its head.

It immediately targeted our small meeting on the ruined building with its main cannon. The charge time was half that of its Wall predecessors and fired a fiery blast of death scorching its way towards us, more accurately, Advira. By complete reaction and nothing else, I shoved her out of the way just as the shot came. Everything went completely white and then black almost as quickly.

After almost forever in darkness, my vision came back first in black-and-white and then to color. I was lying in the dirt, and my pain sensors were overloaded with signals coming from my torso and legs, but they seemed to still be in working order as I rolled myself onto my back. In the distance, I heard the sounds of battle. The sound of the Walker's main cannon exploded through the air as another fiery ball crashed into the wall of a building I now sat up against. A large chunk of the wall fell to my left and sent smaller pieces clattering down.

My shields recovered, and I looked down. Shock overcame the pain I felt when I didn't see the Future War Cult logo on my chest or most of the camouflage chest armor. In fact, the shader had deactivated completely, and I was most likely a hodge podge of colors and factions once again. My chest armor now consisted of various pieces of metal in varying sizes and configurations. Small, charred tatters of cloth remained but actually looked to be melted onto some of the metal but were gone for the most part. 'Don't think that'll buff out,' I silently joked to Starco.

'I don't think so either,' he responded. 'But that's what you get for getting in the way of an incendiary blast. Those things burn at a couple thousand Kelvin and pretty much incinerate any cloth-based material with a direct hit.'

'Will my armor still function or am I Shank fodder now?'

'First, you are not nearly experienced enough to be making those types of jokes...'

'Excuse me,' I interrupted. 'If you recall, I fought these mutants before you were even a blip on anyone's radar.'

'Fine, whatever. Your armor should still work, but let's test that theory. I also feel like I should mention that your shield capacity has been significantly reduced and that the shader broke.'

'I noticed the shader thing. Can you contact the Tower from here? Maybe politely ask Eva Levante if she can fix some...major damage to chest armor.'

'Sure. I'll send some sarcasm brownies at the same time.'

'What?'

'THIS CAN'T BE FIXED!' I could practically hear Starco yelling in my thoughts.

'Then what do you recommend?'

'Well since you seem to have a nasty habit of endangering yourself and destroying suits of armor so, I suggest taking the strain off of the manufacturers and make some yourself.'

'I thought they would appreciate the business.' The joke didn't work judging by Starco's silence.

'Well, that's what you get for thinking, and you're not very good at it.'

'So then can you ask Eva Levante for some materials? I think I could rebuild my armor, with some changes of course, and give it my own personal flair.'

'You don't get it do you?'

'Get what?'

'She doesn't sell the materials Guardians. If everyone could tailor their own armor, her role at the Tower would become redundant. In other words, she will not sell any materials to you or me.'

I probed further, probably risking ticking off Starco, but oh well. He was stuck with me anyways. 'Well, where does she get them then? She has to have a supplier unless she can make them just appear out of thin air.'

'You have seen stranger.' Momentary silence permeated by the exchange of fire between the others and the Fallen forces. 'So are we getting back to battle? Or do you want to sit here debating for the next hour or so? That tank isn't going to kill itself.'

'Like you said, I have seen stranger.'

'Don't do that.'

I leaned forward and stood up with a lot of strain. Starco sent a thought to me that seemed to mock my pain. 'Got rust?'

'Ha Ha. Very funny. You try getting shot and then having to fight immediately afterward. Then you can tell me it doesn't hurt.'

'I do happen to know what it feels like. Remember, I'm always here with you.'

'Well, you don't actually deal with the pain.'

Obviously, I cornered him pretty good. He tried changing the subject. 'Ok, ok. Are we returning to the fray yet?'

I equipped the sniper rifle and kept the hand cannon just in case I got into close-quarters. I also had Starco put the Unfriendly Giant on standby.

I Glided up back on top of the building and took cover behind the remains of a vent that just so happened to protrude onto the roof. "Arla, Advira. I need a SITREP."

Arla came over the comms first. "Glad you could join us Maximus. Enjoy your flight?"

"Very funny. In all seriousness though, what's the situation?"

Advira came on next. "We've forced it to target one of us. I'm in a hole cut out of those buildings off to your right, granted you're back on that building we met on earlier, taking cover behind an ancient forklift. Arla is sporadically ducking out a room across from me. We've formulated a plan." Her voice was quite calm given the circumstances.

"What's the plan?"

"You see those unarmored legs?" she asked.

I peered over my cover through my scope. Two of the thick armor pieces for the Walker's legs were missing. "Yeah, what about them?"

"Don't shoot them. Shoot the armor off of the others to cause a reflex and see if you can fit a rocket into the exposed spot. We theorize that a direct hit there could cripple the tank and render it useless."

"How about two?"

"Even better. Arla?" Advira asked, shifting her focus to Arla.

"Yeah?" she responded.

"Maximus, ready the rocket. Arla, on the count of three, toss in your Flux Grenade on the middle right leg. You're right, my left. We're going to take out this leg now, so Maximus can take it out with rockets."

"Roger."

I pulled out the Unfriendly Giant and replaced the canister inside. I let Starco store the half-spent canister. Advira's voice once again filled the comms. "1...2...3...Grenades out!"

Two small pinpricks of light landed just beneath the middle leg dead ahead of me. The armor almost immediately flew off into the central valley below, crushing several Fallen grunts. The Walker immediately went into a shutdown/reboot mode. Its legs slumped and its head lurched forward. Suddenly, the neck advanced forward and exposed orange and yellow technology with small yellow arcs of energy sparking almost constantly around it.

Without delaying, I aimed down the rocket launcher's sights and fired. The purple rocket screamed towards the tank's exposed innards. I fired the other rocket in the cartridge about a second afterward. The first rocket slammed into weak point and took a chunk out. The tank recoiled some, but stayed on its feet. That was until the second rocket made contact.

A large explosion resonated in the air as parts of the tank were ejected as far as I was crouched. Arla and Advira cheered but it was short-lived. Just as the Walker's remains settled and started smoldering, the doors we needed to get through opened up and revealed several Dregs and Vandals.

Starco put the rocket launcher back in storage and I pulled out the purple sniper rifle. The scope's magnifier wasn't too helpful in this situation, but I managed to take out two of the Dregs and leave the rest to the others. I carefully jumped off the building. My pain sensors were still going off mainly in my chest but had calmed down significantly. As I ran towards the now-open doors Starco contacted me.

"Maximus, I did some energy readings on the suit. There's an anomaly."

"What kind of anomaly?"

"You know that the chest armor is one of the main energy sinks for a Warlock's power correct?"

"Right."

"Given its current condition there are three possibilities if you attempt to use the Super Charge. It may cause a cascading issue within the energy sinks and cause an explosion that could be catastrophic to pretty much anything living within about a 5 mile radius."

"All that from one suit?"

"You would not believe how complex Warlock armor is combined with the fact you're an Exo. I'm not sure I even understand all of what goes on. So yes, the physics and logic we've bent on a daily basis could catch up with us in the blink of an eye. Kind of like a fast-acting karma except its you and the universe making that bargain."

By this time, I was barely jogging towards the others and was just out of earshot. "What are the other outcomes?"

"You successfully throw an extremely concentrated Nova Bomb with the possibility of the energy collapsing in on itself and creating a miniature black hole within a really large damage field capable of extinction-level events within."

"How big of a field?"

"A mile, maybe two."

"Are you sure that you're not exaggerating?"

"You caught me. Give or take a half mile."

"And the third option?"

"Nothing happens and your suit overloads and is rendered useless."

Suddenly, Arla's voice called over from less than 100 feet away. "Maximus! Are you going to walk like you're rusted the rest of today or what? You can talk to Starco later."

"Ok, I'm coming," I called to them. I turned my attention back to Starco. "In essence, don't use a Nova Bomb if I can help it."

"Right." With that, the conversation was over, and I picked up my pace to the others. Astonished was a complete understatement to their reaction when they got a look at my armor. Their faces were struck aghast immediately. I explained to them that it was the blast that caused this and no further questions were asked. We proceeded through the door and into a room tinted red. Bones of varying shapes and sizes lined the edges of the room towards a large door that was slammed shut.

There was audible activity on the other side. Rough Fallen jargon passed easily through the door, but it was different than what I've heard before. It was deeper, more sinister compared to a Captain's gruff tones. Suddenly, the door opened. The Fallen didn't realize it. In fact, it looked as though they were praying to large large Servitor in the center of the room. Intermittently, a blob of white light traveled from the servitor to the Fallen grunts below.

The space was largely a raised platform with an area to the right much higher than the others. Stacks of metal containers dotted the area. Sepiks Prime took up most of the space in the middle surrounded by some sort of forcefield.

We rushed in and quickly exterminated the Fallen around the giant servitor. It may not have had an official face, but we could tell that Sepiks was not happy about that. "Fan out!" I commanded. Arla took cover in the center while Advira took a spot on the right side. I rushed to the high point and drew my rifle out. Starco made a quick scan of the boss and made a bar representing its approximate health. The top area was a concrete outcropping within the indention of an adjacent building; it had an empty gas container that served as perfect cover granted that it was truly empty and no fossil fuels were actually inside.

We set to work bombarding the Fallen Servitor with bullets and plasma from various angles. I emptied my last sniper clip just as the bar hit a quarter of the way down. I swapped out the sniper rifle for the rocket launcher and loaded one of the three cartridges I had remaining. I took a steady aim at the center of the servitor's "eye" and squeezed the trigger. One rocket fired followed shortly by a second. Just after the hard launch, I summoned a grenade and threw that at the target. All three of those did minimal damage to it.

The rest of my rockets did almost as much damage. Arla and Advira threw their grenades in the meantime as well as the only two rockets between them. Both rockets split on impact into multiple smaller rockets that surrounded Sepiks and collapsed on him and took out a significant amount of health. The rockets brought Sepiks' approximate health to around a quarter remaining.

I hadn't shot anything for the last five minutes or so. I was completely out of all types of ammo that I had brought with me. "I'm out," I announced over comms.

Advira's voiced suddenly came over the comms. "I'm out of ammunition. Give me a minute to activate a synthesis." I had no idea what she meant by a "synthesis," but I did see Sepiks take the opportunity to suddenly disappear in a flash of light and reappear just in front of Advira. Immediately, a swirling vortex of void-attributed plasma pulsed and enveloped her. Just like any enemy killed by elemental plasma, she became an outline and steadily floated away until the outline lingered no longer. What I presumed to be her Ghost popped up where she once stood and expanded with a blue orb placed beneath each extended point.

The Ghost closed up and hastily rushed towards Arla. It never saw the concentrated plasma beam directed at it from Sepiks. The blast immediately obliterated the Ghost and scattered its pieces. Advira was gone, never to rise again.

And I watched her die.

Guardians are still mortal.

"Guardian down," Starco whispered solemnly into my helmet.

I sat, crouched on one knee, dumbfounded. Arla took immediate action and exploded into a rage. She pumped every round she could into Sepiks' spherical form. Several plasma rounds from the Fallen servitor sent her scrambling back into cover in my direction. She didn't get back in time. A plasma burst hit her in the legs and sent her body flying into the wall about 12 feet from my right. Arla didn't move for several seconds while I stayed defenseless in cover. I saw Stargazer appear and start floating just above her body. I knew Arla was dead.

Starco sent a thought to my mind. 'If you want to end up like them, I suggest we don't attempt a revival.'

'A what?' I responded, confused by his comment.

'No time to explain. Giant boss behind us remember.'

'Screw it. I'm not letting her Ghost get destroyed too. I refuse to lose ALL THREE of the people that decided to fight alongside me today.'

I grabbed the nearest stone and hurled it at Sepiks Prime. It dinged off the center of the "eyeball" and immediately caused him to set his sights on me. I hesitated, and it cost me. A barrage of purple plasma flew at me. My cover was compromised and possibly explosive, so I ran towards Arla's body and Stargazer.

Stargazer immediately retracted when I reached for her. I brought her close to my chest and leapt down the stairs towards the center and door. I slid inside the door.

"Stargazer, I understand that I'm not Arla, but I need you to trust me," I hastily requested. Several beams of plasma exploded onto the ground next to me

"You..c-could…" Stargazer stuttered

"Do you trust me?" I asked, more forcibly this time.

"Y-yes."

"Take cover somewhere. I'm about to do something extremely dangerous."

Starco immediately sensed my idea. 'No you won't.'

'Watch me.' I ignored any other messages from him and confidently strode back through the oversized doorway.

I leaned forward slightly and started growing orbs in my hands. Sepiks Prime stared at me but did nothing. My chest armor started glowing purple with a strong and unprecedented aura. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the orbs had turned purple as well and were quickly growing in size.

"COME GET SOME!" I screamed at the servitor. I leapt into the air and brought my hands to my chest for only a moment. I threw them outward. Three tremendously sized orbs sliced through the air straight into Sepiks Prime.

The deafening blast knocked me into the wall and coated everything in a harsh purple light that left nothing untouched. I closed my eyes and shut down my auditory sensors in order to avoid damage but still be able to tell once the maelstrom was over. Minutes passed, and I stayed still against the wall. I saw nothing but an inky blackness but knew that if I opened my eyes a harsh opposite would assault my eyes until I returned them to the inky blackness again.

I waited for what seemed like forever and finally opened my eyes. Starco was hovering in front of me with his blue eye blinking in random patterns. I realized he was talking and reactivated my auditory sensors. "...you awake? Hello? Maximus?"

I waved my hand. My pain sensors went off all over the place with that small movement. "I'm awake, I'm good. What happened?"

"An unforeseen outcome."

"_What happened_?" I reiterated. I looked around causing more pain responses. Sepiks Prime was gone with no evidence that it ever existed. The air seemed to have a barely noticeable purple tint to it that only the keenest of eyes could detect.

"Sepiks Prime has been completely annihilated," Starco said flatly. "I've alerted the Tower of your success. I suggest we get back immediately."

"Agreed. Let's go recover Stargazer." I painfully stood up and started stiffly walked through the door. I looked around for the Ghost but couldn't seem to find it. "Stargazer," I yelled into the hall filled with bones.

"Over here," I heard a soft voice say behind me. I turned on my heel and knelt down next to a pile of bones. I started digging through them until I saw Arla's Ghost. It steadily gained altitude after emerging from the bones.

"The darkness here has lifted," she said. "Let me try something."

I took a step back to be cautious. A word, likely due to Starco, came to my mind: "Revival." The Ghost angled down and shivered. The shiver turned into a shaking and then abruptly transformed into a violent spastic movement. Suddenly, the Ghost opened and released a blinding flash of light.

Arla appeared from the light and was bent as if she was recovering from a long jump. She straightened herself and checked her appendages as if this had happened before. (Then again, what did I know about being a Guardian. It hadn't even been a year since my revival and induction.)

Confidence flashed upon her face just before reality slammed into her like a rocket. Sadness edged into her features until it completely took over. Tears welled up at the bottom of her glowing eyes and began streaming down her face. Her cheeks became flushed as Arla cried out and wept in this desolate place.

(End of chapter. There was a slight glitch in my transition method)

Greetings from the Author:

What's up? It's the SFR. Just wanted to take a minute and make a request. I've had a poll out for probably a month or so on my main profile about which exotic I should put in the story in the near future. No spoilers yet, but that chapter will be soon, so if you could take a second to vote. I really want to get the readers involved somehow even if it's just through a vote here and there.

((((((((((CLICHE WARNING))))))))))

Also, I wanted to take a minute to thank each and every one of you for reading up to this point. I love doing this, and it's great to see the support this story gets.

Just to recap:

Please vote. You don't have to, but I honestly can't decide which exotic to involve next and want to know what you all want to see (read?) next.

Thank you all once again and see ya later!


	20. The Warehouse

Chapter 20

The Warehouse

There was a saying among us in the Allied Earth Army: "We are our fallen." As an Exo, I never really understood the concepts of religion, deities, spirits, and other things that people claimed to be beyond common concepts. I was built in a factory. My "creators" were humans simply working for a living wage, for themselves. Being the individual I was back then, I asked for an interpretation from my CO, a fellow Exo. He said that it wasn't necessarily something that we Exo would fully understand due to our manufacturing and primary programming. According to him, that programming is long gone, but it still lingers in some ways.

Ultimately, he summed it up the best way he could understand. "We are our fallen" was supposed to mean that while our friends and comrades are deceased, we should know that they would fight alongside us if they were alive. They died believing the same ideals that we live on and fight for. Though their bodies decay, we carry them in memories stored within our databanks.

This is what I had been mulling over the last hour or so in my room. Arla was beside herself in sorrow for the deceased Advira but also in anger for her lack of effort to save her.

From what I understand of her, Advira had been one of Arla's first acquaintances and friends at the Tower when she finally arrived. She had been a medic put in charge of various missions to the Awoken's front lines. During a return from what was her last mission, her ship was struck several times by Fallen fire and crashed into a hangar at a Reef Outpost. Several decades or centuries later, a Ghost found her and made her a Guardian. From there, I don't know much besides her being the closer on the baseball team not too long ago and her death at the hand of Sepiks Prime.

Starco interrupted my thoughts. "I figured it was better to bring this up now when we're not in the heat of the moment."

"What?" I asked in a considerably harsh tone.

"My bad. Do you still need some time to cool off?"

I immediately backpedaled. "No, no. What is it?"

"Well, there's a certain procedure for a fallen Guardian's dead Ghost…"

"Advira's Ghost was destroyed remember? It likely disintegrated due to the plasma."

"Well, it didn't. Hold out your hand," Starco said in a gentler tone than I had shown him. I complied. "It's still dead, but I think we should at least see the Speaker." Starco shot a gridded cone of light at my hand. Then, a mangled, forest green mass appeared in my hand.

I stared at it for a second trying to determine what it was, and then it hit me. This was what remained of Advira's Ghost. The silver center where the eye could be seen remained with most of the upper pyramidal shapes while the bottom ones were permanently gone. The entire shell and silver centerpiece were charred almost beyond recognition and were slightly warped. I turned it to where the eye would usually be and tapped it with my finger, no result. The dead Ghost disappeared back into Starco's inventory.

"Like I said, it's dead. Can we go see the Speaker now."

"Yeah." I got off the bed and grabbed the bond sitting on the table near the door. As per usual, the armor appeared over the clothes I currently wore. I looked at myself in the mirror. My yellows glowed back at me and cast a small glare on the polished glass. The degradation of the armor was worse than I had originally seen back at the Cosmodrome. The cloth on the chest piece was completely burned away with only a few tatters left. The bare armor left behind had a dull sheen to them and some black oxidation just above the belt. The pants and boots looked as though they had been bleached of all color, and the same thing was evident in my helmet.

It hadn't been like this earlier. I turned to ask Starco but he spoke before I got a word out. "The Darkness from the shot continued to eat away at your armor when you took it off. Not wearing it and exposing it to your inner light accelerated the process. What you're seeing is the natural light the armor contained. It's a good thing we caught it now otherwise there would be no light left to anoint the armor and enable it."

"What about the chest armor? It's been exposed the longest but seems to have the least amount of wear."

"I was wondering that too. It may be because that's where most of the light is stored and generated. At any rate, let's get moving."

I exited the room with Starco floating just above my right shoulder. We made our way to the North Tower and into the Speaker's chambers. Winter's end was just over the horizon, yet a harsh chill remained in the air. As I walked, I could see some Guardian's warm breaths appearing in a cloud and slowly dissipating into the air. The Speaker was just leaving his workspace when I crossed over the small bridge.

I couldn't see his face behind the helmet, but his tone and body language told that he was in a good mood and glad to see me. "Ah, Guardian. Maximus correct?" he said pleasantly. I nodded. "I was just heading to the Vanguard, and if I'm not mistaken, they're looking for you. Join me. We can walk and talk on the way there."

He started walking back towards the tunnel I had just exited at a steady pace. I caught up and matched his pace. He stopped momentarily and looked through the crack between his observatory and a part of the Tower. From there, you could catch a partial glimpse of the Traveler bathed in red-orange light by the soon-to-be-setting Sun. "It's beautiful isn't it?"

"The Traveler?" I asked.

"Yes. The Traveler, the City, all of it. Every day it stands, it shows our resilience and our adaptation to the circumstances."

I only nodded, partially understanding what he said. We continued walking. "So what was it that you wanted to ask me?" the Speaker asked.

Starco transported Advira's dead Ghost into my right hand, and I handed it to the Speaker. "We lost a Guardian during the Strike," I said solemnly.

"May I ask whose it is?" he said examining the dead Ghost.

"Advira Mezzer, an Awoken Huntress, was her name. My Ghost recovered her destroyed Ghost after the firefight was over."

The Speaker stopped again; this time we were about to climb the stairs in the tunnel. "How is it possible?"

"What do you mean?"

"Miss Mezzer was one of the Guardians we originally dispatched there. They were all KIA as you no doubt saw in the footage. Was she injured when you ran into her?"

"Not to my knowledge. She moved quickly and quietly and fought bravely."

"I may have a solution," Starco piped up.

"What would that be Ghost?" We began walking again.

"On our excursion to the Moon, we ran into a strange female Exo. I was suspicious of her then, but Venus confirmed my suspicions. This stranger wasn't a Guardian…"

"I know who you're talking about. Many Guardians have reported seeing her or even making contact with her but never twice. She must see the same thing I see in you."

"Which would be?" I prompted.

"Oh, nothing pertinent to our current conversation. At any rate, she must have saved her from being consumed by the Darkness but not stuck around to take out the Walker."

"Probably didn't want to be blatantly obvious to the Ghost's recordings," I suggested. "Have you ever found her on a Ghost's memory footage?"

The Speaker thought for a moment. "Eh, no. That could be the solution though." He paused for a moment but then asked another question. "What happened to your armor? I've never seen anything like that before."

I began recounting the story from where Lee fell all the way up until the blast that practically destroyed my armor. By the time I finished, we were just about to enter the Vanguard area. The Speaker seemed to understand what happened. "I suppose your deal with the Vanguard may help you find some armor both powerful and durable." He walked down the stairs and beckoned Cayde-6 to walk with him leaving me with Zavala and Ikora.

Zavala met me halfway down the stairs with a handshake. "Glad to see you this evening Maximus," he said with a smile. "I was hoping you could give us the specifics of the battle with Sepiks Prime."

"I'm following you," I replied. Ikora joined us at the bottom of the stairs and we proceeded into the room Lee, Arla, and I had first been briefed in.

Zavala pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards while Ikora remained standing with a relaxed expression on her face with a twinge of stress she was failing to hide.

"So what more is there to be said about the fight?" I asked.

"Nothing really," Ikora began. "There was an...error with your Ghost's feed. Looking at you now, there's no wonder."

"What do you mean?"

Ikora started pacing. "We have no data beyond that cannon blast you took. Obviously, you were victorious, otherwise you wouldn't be here, but we want to know how you came upon Advira Mezzer."

Zavala spoke just as Ikora finished her statement. "If you didn't know already, Advira was one of the original three we sent to that destination to battle the Walker. We don't know how she survived. We tried contacting her but were unable to reach her due to some sort of comms interference after your Ghost reported in."

"That's because she's dead," I said flatly.

"You didn't revive her?" Zavala asked.

"I couldn't. Her Ghost was destroyed."

"I'm sorry to hear that. She was one of the better Hunters we had. Did she ever explain how she found you three?" I shook my head no. Zavala rubbed his chin. "Hmm...I guess it will have to remain a mystery…"

"Maybe Arla saw something," I suggested.

Ikora seemed to give it some thought. "Very possible. At any rate, could you fill us in on what happened post-blast."

I started to tell them everything that happened from the time I woke up onwards but left out my conversations with Starco. I described what the doors to the Devil's' Lair and the skirmish with the Fallen before we fought Sepiks Prime. I detailed Advira's death and destruction along with Arla's incapacitation. I failed to mention how I killed Sepiks though. Endangering anyone and anything within several miles via an unstable Nova Bomb.

"With your armor in such poor condition, did you attempt a Nova Bomb?" Ikora inquired.

"Starco explained the risks, and I decided against it."

Zavala picked up on something. "You said you were completely out of ammunition as Advira died, correct?" I nodded. "Then how did you kill Sepiks without guns or a Nova Bomb? Surely you didn't take it on with a melee."

I was caught in my lie. I needed to make up something fast to cover my tracks and said the first thing that came to mind. "I tossed my own grenade and took one off of Arla's armor."

"Interesting tactic, but effective," Ikora commented. "I believe I have a good enough understanding of what we missed. Any more questions Zavala?"

He rubbed his chin again but ultimately said, "Not any that immediately come to mind."

"Are we good then?" I asked.

"I believe so. And as promised, we're giving you access to the Vanguard armory. The cameras will recognize you at the door and let you in without a password. I'll send the location to your Ghost in a few minutes. I suggest going there as soon as possible for proper armor. You're dismissed Maximus."

I stood up, saluted, and exited.

A few hours later, I found myself in front a building about 300 meters from where the Wall's rebuilding project. It made a little more sense why the Fallen attacked this spot of the Wall rather than a more advantageous position atop the mountains to the south.

At any rate, Lee was bedridden for the next couple of days nursing a moderate concussion, two cracked ribs, and several deep-tissue bruises due to my mistake. The nurse assigned for his care the next few days said he would be ready for action in three days with their treatment methods. The concussion they would have to monitor closely after the three days, but shouldn't hinder him too much afterward.

Arla was dealing with some emotional damage, but understood that this is the life we live, and that her life would not be extinguished in vain.

Sunset came almost an hour ago and the street lights two hours ago. The cold temperatures plummeted on the Tower but were about 3 degrees warmer here in the City. Arla and I had walked through the City without helmets on but with our weapons strapped to our back just in case someone decided to mess with us. Arla also had her hood pulled over her head. We stopped just in front of the door.

"Is this the place?" Arla asked, looking at me.

I looked back at her. The cold lamp light was dulled on her face by the ends of her hood. The right side was partially illuminated but overall, it was dark enough to see her green eyes glow eerily within. The illuminated part of her face showed a restored confidence that resembled the Arla I've grown accustomed to knowing.

"Yeah," I responded. "The Vanguard sent Starco the codes for the door. Starco, if you would be so kind."

A small red light next to the door flashed green followed by a click and what sounded like something rolling, likely a security system. This new security system likely the result of the break in last time I was here. I stepped up to the door, and it slid open as I approached. "Open Sesame," I joked. Arla chuckled and stepped through first.

I followed suit and stepped through the door. No lights turned on, but the door hissed loudly and clicked shut. A few seconds later, blue thin blue lights along the edges of the narrow walkwaly (on the floor and ceiling) flickered into life and gave us at least some lighting. The glow cast outlines on numerous shelves and the bottoms of shapes on those shelves. Arla moved down the walkway while I examined one of the shelves.

I walked over to it, but still couldn't make out what was on it. I reached for the outline. Suddenly, the entire shelf lit up in a harsh white light and revealed an assault rifle with the Vanguard emblem emblazoned on the barrel and a tactical rail starting from the beginning of the barrel to the start of the stock. There was a label that read: "PEST CONTROL MATRIX AUTO RIFLE MODEL: TY9846.

I looked at the gun but didn't touch it anymore than that initial grasp. The light disappeared a few seconds later and darkness enveloped us again. Starco appeared next to me and started shining his light around the area. "I've accessed the building's systems. Do you want me to activate the lights?" he asked.

"No. We like wandering in the dark," Arla responded sarcastically. All at once, every last shelf light flashed on and lit up the entire area with the combined light. It was blinding for a moment, but our eyes seemed to adjust after a minute or two.

I looked around the room now that I could see where I was walking. The ceiling was made of an extremely reflective metal that amplified the light coming off the shelves. Guns lined the walls for the next 15 feet or so before the walkway shifted back into darkness and diverged into two different paths.

I left Arla to look at the weapons and proceeded towards the new area. There were no doors barring entrance to the non-illuminated areas. The one on the left revealed a circular staircase that led into a murky darkness. The hallway on the right led straightforward into what seemed to be an open-aired room. There was a label between them:

← **Hangar**

**Supplies → **

I stepped into the one labeled supplies. As I entered, motion-activated lights flickered on and revealed a room full of wooden crates with holo-sensors attached to one side. I walked to the one nearest to me and waved my hand over the sensor. Immediately, a light blue screen popped up with the contents of the crate. This particular crate had "All Purpose Scout Rifle Munitions" and "Fusion Rifle Elemental Variety (A,S,V) along with plenty of packing material on the top, bottom, and sides. The next two I checked had Sniper Rifle, Auto Rifle, Shotgun, and more Hand Cannon ammunition. In other words, not what I was looking for.

I had a hunch that this is the place where Eva gets her materials for armor. With my armor in the poor condition it's in, I really need to find some Smart Cloth, the stuff warlock armor is primarily made of aside from the metal armor, and whatever else I'll need to fully repair this set. Long story short, none of the crates in the room had anything I needed, but I did uncover a door near the back.

I pushed open the heavy, metal door and proceeded through. No automatic lights greeted my presence, so I felt around on the wall for some sort of switch. It took a moment, but I did find one. One small flip of the switch and several flickers of the lights later, I beheld another room with about 20 crates, stacked 4 high and 5 across, lined the back wall. Another much smaller crate sat next to the door. After two steps into the room, I got an ominous feeling. Almost like I'm being watched.

If something was here, I needed to be ready for close-quarters combat. I swapped the Multi-Tool for that New Monarchy hand cannon I couldn't recall the name of. Once I felt the weight shift from the middle of my back to a more balanced distribution, I placed a hand on the gun and fingered the trigger. I started to slowly traverse the floor. "You feel that?" I asked Starco as I walked.

"Yeah," he replied after a moment. "Nothing on the scanners though. It's probably nothing. Are you seriously going to…" "Shh," I interrupted.

I heard something and it was coming from near those crates. I slowly pulled out my gun and held it vertically. 'Slow, careful steps,' I thought approaching the sound. Suddenly, something scurried right in front of me. Instinctively, I leveled the gun, aimed the sight, and fired a round in only a fraction of a second. There was a small squeal and then nothing.

A cold voice mocked from the door. "Congratulations Maximus. You killed a rat."

I spun on my heel and pointed my gun at the doorway. The Exo Stranger stood leaned against the doorway. I tightened my grip and pulled the trigger back partially, just enough so she could see that the hammer was pulled back and ready to fire. "What do you want?" I spat.

She chuckled. "You haven't barged into the Black Garden yet? What's wrong? Don't tell me you're scared."

I gripped the gun even harder. "Just a few complications. Now, what are you doing here? This warehouse belongs to the Vanguard. In other words, not the likes of you. Now, leave or I'll shoot." I didn't plan on shooting her; I didn't want to explain why there's a dead Exo on the ground or why I shot a second time. Speaking of, why hadn't Arla rushed down here after I discharged my gun?

"Cut the crap. You say that every time we meet, and you haven't shot yet. Go ahead, put the gun down so we can talk civilized-like." The Stranger stepped into the room and stood in front of the large crate with her hands on her hips. She waited for a moment; neither of us moved. "Fine," she conceded. "I'll start." The removed yellow rifle and strap and placed them on the floor. "There. Happy?"

I said nothing and kept my gun trained on her but I relaxed my grip on the trigger slightly. "Get out," I commanded. My rage was beginning to reach a fever pitch and boil.

She threw her hands into the air, "HE SPEAKS!" she proclaimed. "Now we can discuss some important matters!"

"No," I immediately denied. "You're going to leave. This is Vanguard property, and you do not belong here. Pick up your weapon, turn around, and leave. Otherwise, I will shoot. I'm fed up with your vague statements and conspiracies. Tell me who you are, what you want, and who the heck you work for; otherwise, I WILL shoot without hesitation."

"Will you be a little more open with me then?" I nodded. "Fine. You will call me Athena. I work for an organization determined to find the truth. We want a man inside the Tower, letting our opinions be known to the Vanguard through you, but by no means will you let them know it's us. At least, until the time is right."

I lowered and holstered the hand cannon. I extended a hand and shook hers. "A flattering offer, but I must decline. I have nothing to do with the Vanguard's plans or goals. I'm simply a soldier."

"My sources beg to differ, but I'll put you down as a maybe." Athena stepped back. Her eyes swept over me from head to toe. "You might want to check this crate behind me. Your life may depend on it." With that, she picked up her weapon and disappeared.

What was with her? This stranger got increasingly odd every time I saw her, but now she had a name...well a codename. Athena. Ancient Greek Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. How strange considering she seems more like a messenger at this point. Then again, Hermes was male. The request to be her eyes within the Tower was the strangest thing she's said so far. I won't lie that I thought the Guardians were the only military-like group remaining in existence. The fact that there was another group working against the Darkness was very alien to me. What could their motives be? They didn't work for or with the Traveler, surely the Vanguard would know them and would adopt into a new faction. There couldn't possibly be a financial gain because the only place, to my knowledge, to buy and sell things is the City. This group would have to be based somewhere else, probably some station in space outside of the inner planets. They could be in the Asteroid Belt like the Reef, but the Awoken would have kicked them out if they detected them.

Either way, it's not my main concern. I needed to get into the Black Garden and to do that, I need to get into the Reef and consult with the Awoken queen, maybe work out some sort of alliance between the Vanguard and their queendom. Now to check out that crate…

I walked over to the crate and tried to push the lid off. I put all of my strength behind it, but could not dislodge the top. I pulled up on the lid with the same result. I stepped back from the stubborn crate and planned my next move. Shooting it was not an option; I could damage the contents that Athena said I may need. If I'm careful, I could hit the corners...Ah screw it.

I pulled out the hand cannon and carefully aimed down the sights at top left and right corners. The shots should travel all the way to the wall, breaking the seal and allowing me to rummage through these supposedly important items. I squeezed the trigger and immediately changed my heading to the other side and fired again. Three metallic clangs and a dull thud hung in the air for several seconds. Pain exploded in the lower part of my chest. A FLIPPING _RICOCHET_! WHAT IS THAT THING MADE OF TO CAUSE A RICOCHET! THE BULLETS DEFLECTED OFF THE STUPID CRATE AND ONE HIT ME! _MY LUCK!_

I found myself on my hands and knees with a small dribble of blue liquid starting to seep between the metal plates. It didn't look like it hit any vitals at first glance, but losing a large amount of fluids could topple me easily. I holstered my gun and placed a hand over my wound. I stumbled over to the stupid crate and found its holo-sensor. The blue screen popped up and showed a list of its contents that I couldn't read (the wound may be a little worse than originally thought since my vision was beginning to blur).

"Starco," I said with a grunt of pain. "What's in the crate?"

"It seems to be full of smartcloth, alloy paints, ballistic nanomesh, Hadronic Essence vials, and ion fusers."

"In other words, exactly what we were looking for."

"Well, minus the ship. Do you really think that you can make your own armor?"

"Don't know and won't know until I try." I pulled off my armor and set it on the ground in front of me.

"What are you doing? " Starco inquired.

"Can't you read my mind? I'm making armor. Now, get me the nanomesh and Hadronic Essence vials; I'm going to try something." In the AEA, we were responsible for the upkeep of our armor. I can't begin to count the times I had to fill in holes and cover the blast marks that occurred during battle. Battle scars were great, but they could be your downfall if one well-placed shot manages to penetrate that gap. I've never rebuilt armor, but I think I've figured out how to do it.

"You're losing fluids. Don't you think that it would be wise to get yourself checked out first."

"You worry too much and too little at the same time."

"I could say the same thing about you. Let's get moving, I'm detecting a warp drive signature in the hangar which means that there is a ship with a powerful engine below. Besides, where's Arla?"

I stopped what I was doing. "Fine, get me some of the black cloth. I'll wrap the wound, but I'll still repair the armor. It shouldn't take too long. I know a few tricks."

Starco grudgingly transferred the smartcloth, nanomesh and Hadronic Essence vials next to me. I pulled about 4 or 5 feet and wrapped it around my torso. It was much larger than the wound, but it did the job. The new stability in my systems and fluids cleared my sight back to normal, but I knew something was definitely wrong. The ricochet definitely did something a little more sinister; I could deal with it though. After all, I took a direct hit from a cannon and survived. What a shame it would be to be killed by my own bullets!

The mesh looked like a flat sheet of metal, sturdy and rigid, but it was extremely malleable when I picked up the roll. The AEA used a micromesh underneath Titanium-infused plastic plates painted a bright white. The Essence was an extremely pale orange, almost a orange and gold mix.

I drizzled several vials worth of liquid onto all of the armor. Instantaneously, the Darkness corroding it disappeared and new armor replaced the corroded areas. I took the mesh and wrapped the chest plate with it, pressing down on the back part to weave it into itself. I then began the process of placing layers of the smartfabric to create the cloak portion of the armor.

90 minutes passed, and I had completely redone the armor minus the helmet. Actually, I was in the middle of painting the helmet when I heard something peculiar. Like stone falling from a great height and crashing into the ground. The impact violently shook the ground as I used the alloy paint to restore the helmet after applying the Hadronic Essence. I finished it a few minutes later.

I had a silver oval circling the neck with dark blue extending just below the collar and stops at the shoulder pauldron. The pauldrons were silver with blue sleeves highlighted by shiny lines of the same color rolling down the sleeve all the way to the silver glove with black circles around the knuckles and lines up the fingers. The body of the cloak was blue with a parting about mid-torso revealing an extra-thick layer of the mesh and armor. The tails on the cloak were the same color as the cloak except for a silver diamond extending from the bottom to the middle of the thighs. The pants were a solid blue while the boots were solid silver with blue laces. The helmet was also silver save for stripes on each side of the visor thinning until touching at the center of the back of the helmet. I decided to call it "Metal 27."

I stood proudly over my armor and watched Starco pull it into the inventory except for the bond which I now held in my hand. "Congratulations," he said. "You just created a new armor design. Are you ready to leave now?"

I sighed. "Yes, Starco. What's got you so intent on leaving?" I asked pulling the bond over my elbow and activating the armor. It may just be repainted and repaired armor, but it felt completely new.

"I can hear them above us. Dozens, possibly hundreds of Ghosts. Something's happened."

Suddenly, the building tremored again, but this time even more violently. Cracks spread throughout the walls around me. Dust fell from the ceiling. I had to get out of here. "I agree. Let's move."

I took a step towards the stairs just as another tremor rocked everything. I stumbled but kept moving towards the stairs. The small room suddenly seemed longer than any path I'd ever traveled; my usually swift movements in times of crisis were slowed to the speed of molasses during an Old Russian Winter. I finally reached the stairs and started climbing. The most violent tremor thus far stampeded through the building and knocked me off the stairs, collapsing the everything that was once in front of me. I bounced down the stairs until I hit the floor hard.

The power went out, and everything plunged into darkness. "Crap. Starco, do we have any escape options?" We didn't have much time. Starco popped into the air and shined his light wherever I looked. The small cone of vision it gave me was just enough for me to see the seemingly infinite amount of cracks surrounding me.

"Yes, it should be...No, no, no! It's collapsed. Underground is not a place to be when something like this happens. Can you move any of the rocks on the stairway?"

I sprinted over to the steps and the collapsed pieces of building guarding it. I grabbed the first piece I could find and easily tossed it behind me. I removed a few more pieces of rubble and blindly tossed them aside as well.

Suddenly, the wall of rubble shifted and not in a good way. A section of wall wedged in near the top of the pile moved a few inches, causing some miniscule pieces to move along with it. The large section then skidded a few more inches downward but seemed to settle. While I was heaving another piece away from me, then slab freed itself and rushed down the pile straight at me. It ramped off another larger piece of concrete and slammed into my torso. Starco immediately disappeared. More of the wall crumbled with the slab and pinned me from the waist down. The pressure was incredible and barred me from moving anything below that point. An audible _BOOM _came from above.

All at once, the entire room collapsed on top of me. I extended my arms instinctively, but it didn't phase the falling ceiling. I could feel the stone steadily crushing me where I lay, completely defenseless and indefinitely pinned.

I honestly thought that my rebirth as a Guardian left me invincible. All the thing I had accomplished and survived in my short tenure made my past life seem like the distant epoch it truly was. There was certainly no heroic escape, no fist surging through the rubble. Time would run out; the lights would flicker and die out forever.

_The hero that was_

_Hardened by the hopeless war_

_Killed by harsh nature_

I am dead.


	21. Rubble

Chapter 21

Rubble

Arla awoke with a sharp gasp and a violent coughing fit. Dust clouded out with every hacking cough. After that was over, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stretched her arms out. Immediately, her back exploded in pain. Her back was sore beyond all belief. It hurt so much she had to lay back down on the cot and wait for several minutes for the pain to subside. She took a deep breath in. That's when it hit her. 'This isn't my room. Last I checked, it didn't smell like latex.' Arla slowly sat up again and looked about the room. Bandaged patients in various stages of injury lie on stiff, green cots in two neat rows with white curtains separating the patients. The white canvas walls were that of a tent, and she could see the faint red cross adorning the outside of the tent seeping through the ceiling overhead. She could hear the hushed voices of nurses and doctors nearby conversing with other medical staff or patients.

She sat up slowly on the bed and braced for the pain that accompanied her movement. She hurt all over her lower body, especially her legs. A headache thudded as well, but it paled in comparison. "How did I get here?" she whispered to herself. The last thing she remembered was feeling the ground shudder violently as she ran outside to find out what the commotion in the street was. She had just turned around to check if Maximus was there…'Wait a minute,' she thought. 'I never saw Maximus after he disappeared beyond that door.' An epiphany hit her followed by a sinking feeling. The very same feeling she hoped never to feel again quickly overtook all the other emotions and thoughts swirling in her head.

Maximus was in the building, and she left him there!

Arla tried to escape the bed, but her own IV and other tubes and monitors pulled her back into the bed. She grabbed several of the cords and tried to rip them out of her arm. Other than causing enough pain to cry out, she couldn't get them out. A nurse responded to the yelp of pain and witnessed Arla trying to take out the cords. She dashed over and stopped her. "Miss, miss!" she struggled to say while pushing Arla back into the cot. She succeeded in battling a panting Arla back into the cot. "You've just been in a traumatic accident. You need to calm down until we can transport you to the hospital."

A fire ignited in Arla's eye. She grabbed the nurse's wrists aggressively. "Lady, I've seen way worse than whatever happened. I have to get out of here. My brother-in-arms...my friend is…"

"Whatever your friend is doing, I'm sure it can wait. He or she has likely heard all about the incident and may be on the way to check on you, so just sit back and relax until then."

The fire grew into an inferno in the blink of an eye. "MY FRIEND IS DEAD OR DYING!" Arla shouted, arousing several more doctors who immediately came to assist. She struggled against the nurse and put her feet on the floor and stood up, ignoring the ensuing pain. Everything at her back felt a draft circling through the tent and got cold quickly, but she didn't take any notice to it. She slinged the nurse onto the cot and pinned her. Arla angrily stared into the nurse's eyes, making sure she saw the urgency and anger flowing through them. She grabbed the nurse by the collar and held her to the bed and threw back a fist. "Release me NOW! Or the Tower will hear about…"

Her eyes grew wide. "I'm sure the Tower will understand that you're... UGH!" Arla slammed her fist into the nurse's face. Her nose gave a gut wrenching crack while her body slumped on the cot. 'Where are you at?' Arla asked in her head.

She immediately heard Stargazer's voice in her head. 'You shouldn't have hurt that poor woman. She was only doing her job,' she warned. Arla brushed it aside and continued struggling with the tubes. Then she saw the release clamp on the nurse's belt. She snatched it and inserted it into the hole on the heart monitor. All of the tubes around her left wrist let go and ejected their heads as they retracted, making almost no sound.

'Some things are a little more important. Now, where are you at?'

"I'm right in front of you," she stated, flashing into existence in front of Arla. Noticing the open curtain in front of the bed, Arla pushed the Ghost aside and quickly dragged the curtains across. They spoke in hushed voices. "You still didn't need to hurt her."

Arla sighed angrily. "Deal with it. My armor please." She heard footsteps behind her approaching her curtains. It was a wonder they hadn't checked on what was going on already.

"Veronika? Is everything alright?"

'Crap,' Arla whispered. She turned to face the curtain and jumped onto the cot. "Yes. The patient just woke up and panicked. She's fine now."

"Oka...You're not Veronika." The doctor entered the "room" and took a step back. His eyes immediately turned toward the unconscious nurse hanging off the side of the bed. Arla threw the curtains closed again, threw a knee into the man's gut and followed it with an uppercut that knocked him out before he could comprehend what happened. Arla caught his limp body before he could fall over.

"That's two," Stargazer accused. "You do realize that these people could be in a lot worse condition than you are, and you taking out the medical staff may wind up killing them." The words fell on deaf ears. Arla was busy stacking the limp bodies on the cot to make it seem less suspicious. She pulled the sheet over their heads and stepped away from the bed.

"We need to get back to the warehouse. My armor please?"

Stargazer was dumbfounded. "Did you not hear what I said?"

"Every moment we waste is one more Maximus lays dying. Now, my armor Stargazer." Stargazer sighed but delivered the armor nonetheless. Arla checked to make sure the curtains were closed and quickly changed out of the hospital gown into a t-shirt and shorts; she then pulled the armor over it and laced up her boots. The helmet slid easily over her head, and she pulled her green hooded cape over her head. She checked her weapons, this time she had the Omolon Hard Light auto rifle and the Conspiracy Theory-D shotgun. That didn't matter. What did matter is that she needed to get to the Vanguard Armory as fast as possible.

She pushed the curtain back and looked around for the exit. A human nurse almost ran into her but paid her no mind other than a stern look for almost running her over. Arla found the tent's exit and moved through the flap. Early morning light cast orange light on the buildings and sidewalks. The large shadow of the Wall kept the area Arla stood in semi-darkness with the encroaching sunlight.

The pain still lingered, but Arla was not about to let that get in her way. She started running with a slight limp in her stride, but it eventually subsided and her full stride took her in the direction of the warehouse.

Arla sprinted for what felt like forever, running through groups of people, and shoving aside others. Several people yelled at her, but she wasn't going to let words get in the way of her quest, however fruitless it may turn out. She could see the collapsed section of wall in the distance probably 500 yards ahead. Local authorities and Guardians, mostly Titans, stood guard with weapons at the ready in front of the collapsed section of Wall and the crushed remains of the Vanguard Armory. A crowd had gathered as three Titans searched through the rubble, likely looking to salvage any weapons they could find. They didn't move any of the larger rocks, only the smaller ones that could not have crushed a weapon.

Arla charged into the wall of guards. A Titan in blue and gold armor stopped her sternly. "Hold up miss. Only authorized personnel beyond this point," he said very matter-of-factly.

"You don't recognize a Huntress when you see one?" Arla commented in disbelief.

"Ha, ha. Very funny," the Titan said sarcastically. "You can take off your cosplay and before we send you home in energycuffs. Step aside ma'am, you're not a Guardian."

Arla held out her left hand and flashed Stargazer the Titan's direction. "Oh, she's a Guardian, and there's a dead Guardian in there that we need to find in there."

The Titan was slightly taken aback by the appearance of a Ghost. No doubt he realized she was a Guardian, but he still wouldn't let Arla by. "There was only one Guardian remotely near the building when this section of Wall collapsed on it. She got pinned by the legs and has been transported to a medical station and will be under close medical attention for some time. Sorry miss for the misunderstanding." He leaned down into Arla's face. "Now, return to the Tower before I'm forced to put you in for a Court Martial."

Arla ripped off her helmet. "_I_ was the Guardian near this building. I came here with one of my squadmates. He was downstairs when it collapsed."

"Something tells me that you are creating some sort of complex ruse on the spot…"

"CUT THE CRAP! A Guardian's life is at stake, and you refuse entry to the only one who knows where he is. Stop looking for weapons and start looking for a blue Exo." Arla was shouting, and drawing her own crowd around her. The people were a mix of disbelief and nervousness. They had never witnessed two Guardians arguing with each other, especially when they needed to be working together.

The original tremor was an earthquake centered about a half-mile away from the collapsed section of Wall, but this section was still under construction after the Fallen's attack. Large sections of reinforced concrete and heavy stones fell on buildings and people without any exceptions.

"This is your last warning Guardian. Leave these premises, or we will restrain you and send you back to the Tower." A City Policeman pulled out a stun baton and activated it in anticipation. Arla stood fast, undaunted. "Fine, be like that. Everyone hold position. I'll deal with this insurgent myself. Come here." The Titan holstered his hand cannon and lowered a fist sending white arcs up and down his arm. The crowd cleared a circle around them sensing violence.

The Titan cocked back his fist and threw it forward at Arla's face. She sidestepped the blow and grabbed the arm on purpose. The arcs coursed up her arm and down into her belt into a thin and sharp superconductor. "What the-?" the Titan gasped as Arla kicked him in the center of the chest. She then grabbed him and flipped him backwards onto the ground. She came out on top and pulled out her electrified knife and held it to his neck. Arla kept a knee right at his collar bone about an inch from the knife. The inferno returned to her eyes twice as hot as before.

She crept the knife closer and closer to his neck with every word. Arcs licked their way around Arla's supercharged hand and blade. "Let...Me...IN!" By now, the knife was only a centimeter from touching the flexible point underneath the helmet. The Titan was silently gasping from within his helmet, probably as red as the morning sun with embarrassment. He muttered something unintelligible. Arla grinded her knee deeper into his chest. "Fine," he relented. "However, if you don't find this supposed buried Guardian, I will take you to the Vanguard and you will be either suspended or disbanded. Titans in the rubble. take a half hour off. We will probably be making a run to the Tower in a few minutes."

Arla took the pressure off his chest and moved the knife from his neck to his helmet. All it took was a small tap. All of the knife's charge flowed into the Titan's armor and overloaded the systems instantaneously. He would be completely immobilized for several minutes until his suit reset from the power surge. Arla stood up and laughed quietly to herself about how he was likely losing his mind beneath the thick armor that completely muted him to the outside without the microphone being powered.

She sheathed her knife and strode past the stunned the policeman and, likely just as stunned, Titans with a smirk on her face. Then her memory hit her. She needed to hurry. Maximus at this point had little time left at all.

Immediately she started imagining what the building looked like before it collapsed. She stood approximately where the door had been. The building had been completely leveled by the falling pieces of Wall; no piece of the structure remained recognizable. She continued on what was once the walkway in that room with all the weapons. She could see splinters of wood and metal from the crates that had been filled with various materials. Arla's heart was racing uncontrollably as she began sifting through the rubble and removing larger pieces of debris using her suit's assists.

Arla continued to dig without rest with only extremely limited breaks for eating. Every piece of her body ached and burned. The other Guardians and crowd peeled off hours earlier paying her no more attention. A couple Titans helped for a couple minutes but didn't even stay for 30 minutes before they left for the Tower. The Titan Arla embarrassed came by solely to mock her efforts and knocked a few stones back into the hole she had dug up but wound up not arresting her like he had threatened. Countless scrapes covered her face and a several holes in her gloves exposed portions of her bare hands to the rough pieces of concrete and stone. These stones cut rubbed the exposed pieces of skin raw and and made good-sized gashes that had stopped bleeding a couple hours previous, but continually reopened whenever Arla grabbed a rock incorrectly.

Now that night had fallen, the streetlights came on, but there were none to be found in her general area. Like everything else, the Wall buried it with its debris. That and the power was deactivated in this sector for "safety reasons."

Around 8:30, Arla found the stairway Maximus took. Rejuvenated by this discovery, she dug with renewed haste. Despite her best efforts, the rough rocks around her only slid down to refill the hole she had just cleared out. Hours passed with her trying to pin the rocks back long enough to keep digging.

Nothing worked. Arla refused to give up; she refused to live with the permanent deaths of two people close to her within 24 hours. However, hope faded quickly with every failed attempt to hold back the rubble. Tears flooded down her cheeks as she sobbed. Her methodical way of removing the rocks was long abandoned for a more chaotic swinging of her arms, taking fistfuls of rocks at a time and flinging them behind her. She tried to think that Maximus' gauntlet was going to plow through the debris with every fist of rocks, but it slowly became apparent that this wasn't going to happen.

The temperature dipped to 6℃. Her shredded gloves let the cold in unhindered. Arla's hands went numb. Tears blurred her vision and all but blinded her, and the small amount of light Stargazer afforded did nothing to help. Arla stopped digging after well over 12 hours. Her confidence and swagger were gone. No matter what she did, the rocks would refill the hole and reverse all of her progress.

Arla sunk even lower on her knees. She let the tears flow freely onto the ground. She pushed her hands to her face and cried as hard as she could.

Maximus was gone forever and there was nothing she could do about it.


	22. Fault

Chapter 22

Fault

Arla snapped awake from her nightmare. She was back in the Armory, and it solaced her partially. The entire fiasco must have been a horrible dream; an extremely tangible one at that. The extremely cold building AC blasted against her face and sent chills throughout her body. It took her a moment to realize where she was, but when she did, she sprinted towards the door and the stairwell. She heard two voices echo up the stairs. Arla crept to the edge of the door but didn't set foot on the steps. She couldn't see anything but could hear the voices much clearer now. Both belonged to Exos. One was very obviously Maximus'. "I must decline," he said confidently. "It's not that I don't want to, but there are ears listening to our conversation."

A cold female voice responded. "I will deal with her. Then we can talk business."

"No you won't!" Maximus shouted. _BANG!_ Someone discharged their weapon. It sounded like a hand cannon, so Arla assumed it was Maximus. Their was a female scream of agony. The cold voice suddenly started pleading for her life. "Please...PLEASE...Maximus. We're your only hope. Please, don't kill me. I'm only the messenger. Why won't you listen to me?! I'm on your side!" Everything grew silent for several seconds.

Maximus' voice turned several degrees colder than the stranger's. "You are trespassing on Vanguard property, Guardian territory. YOU, are not a Guardian. I gave you several chances to leave without any harm that would come to you, but YOU are the one who refused to listen. _I _am now _justice_."

Several heavy footsteps echoed off the walls so loudly, Arla felt as if she was standing right next to them. There was a click that sounding like a mix of snapping bones and splintering metal. The female voice pleaded again even with a seemingly impossible amount of panic taking over every part of her voice. "NO PLEASE! LEAVE ME ALONE! I'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU! LET ME GO AND I'LL NEVER BOTHER YOU AGAIN!"

Maximus' voice fluctuated back to calmness. "Very good." The hand cannon shot pierced the air. "Now you can." Arla covered her mouth as she gasped. She felt the splatter of something wet coat her chest armor and hands. It was blue and sticky, like blood but from an Exo. She knew that Maximus had been a soldier, but she'd never seen him be cruel, especially to someone claiming to be a messenger. She took a step back towards the door as she heard the footsteps swiftly climbing the stairs.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently and knocked Arla to the ground. She immediately realized it was an earthquake. She struggled to stand up amidst the shaking but couldn't move. The once-solid ground held her captive as the shaking intensified. Maximus emerged from the doorway seemingly unbothered by the quake. He walked as if nothing were happening. No Exo fluids covered him in the slightest. They were all on Arla.

He stood over her menacingly. His gun had a small stream of smoke coming off the end. His normally yellow eyes were turned an angry red. "You left me to die," he accused with a chuckle.

"No," Arla denied. "I didn't. You're standing right here. Don't you feel the earthquake? Why did you kill that person downstairs? Who in the world are you?"

Maximus' laugh was so cold, it sent shivers down Arla's spine. "I am Maximus. Your squadmate, and that _thing_ downstairs was a traitor and trespasser and deserved her punishment and more. You too are a traitor Arla. You left me to die when the building collapsed."

"I didn't leave you here! I got pinned and knocked out."

"SO DID I!" he shouted. "Only, nobody came for me! I laid there for weeks until my power ran out and my fluids ran dry. I suffered underneath several tons of rubble while nobody came for me, and nobody ever will."

"You're wrong!" Arla yelled through the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "I came to save you. I dug for an entire day…"

"AND GAVE UP! You left me there after one measly day of work. The people who constructed the Wall and City that surrounds us worked tirelessly for over a century, and you gave up on a friend in just over 12 hours." Maximus moved towards the door. "Now, you will suffer the same fate you doomed me to." He raised his arms and literally tore the Armory apart all in one motion. He sent the pieces into the air and brought them one by one onto Arla. First the feet. Second the knees and thighs. Third the torso. Finally, after a dramatic pause and maniacal laugh, Maximus threw the last wall straight at her face, but it didn't hurt her. The last one only encased her in a tomb of the Armory just like Maximus.

Arla threw her eyes open. She was breathing in heavy, raspy breaths. Another coughing fit filled her lungs and throat; she hacked out clouds of dust. She felt the cuts on her hands and the sore muscles ached with every slight movement. The tear trails on her cheeks had all but dried. Pushing herself off of the rubble she fell asleep on, Arla painfully sat back on a large piece of stone. Dust caked her armor and choked her lungs, but she stood undaunted.

Arla had given up hope of finding Maximus alive; now, she was looking for a body, his armor, something to confirm that Maximus was truly dead.

Dawn broke about an hour later. Against her body's will, Arla continued digging through the rubble. She didn't even notice the cold anymore except for during the minute-long breaks she took every once in a while to ease the pain. In truth however, these breaks were to stop her tears long enough, so she could see where she was digging. The pains in her hands and legs magnified during this time and felt like torture; a torture she caused by leaving her friend in the rubble of a building.

More hours passed. At this point, Arla's new hole was four feet deep. She had given up on unearthing the stairs completely and was trying to break into the room directly. 'Maybe the room didn't collapse,' she thought, attempting to keep her spirits high enough to keep digging. Arla didn't notice until later, but every fistful of rocks not only deepened the hole she was digging, but it the remaining rocks seemed to sink ever so slightly.

Suddenly, everything stopped. Arla couldn't move no matter what she did. Her arms were unresponsive, and a severe aching crawled all over her body, the pain consuming every cell as a glutton would a buffet. She longed to writhe and shout in agony, but the pain also disallowed this. Darkness crept into her vision and eventually took over completely. A distant warmth appeared while the pain dominated her entire being.

Several hours later, Arla woke up in a warm blanket and cozy sheets. She yawned blearily and shifted in the bed. Opening her drowsy eyes, Arla was immediately rushed with every sore muscle in her body. She was back in her room, but last she checked, she was at the accident site trying to find Maximus. 'How'd I get here?' she thought. Midday light flooded through the window in the corner of her room.

Arla clamored out of bed but noticed something weird about her appearance as she moved. She still wore her battle armor. She had never done this previously mostly due to how uncomfortable the armor was whenever she slept. The fact that she had slept at all amazed her. Slowly so as not to hurt her muscles any farther, Arla shuffled to the window and peered through it. The usual view of the distant mountains was gone, replaced by an endless white landscape that had no features whatsoever. 'This has to be a dream,' she thought calmly, yet it didn't feel like one. All the pain from the conscious world was present and actually intensified with every step. The cuts still criss-crossed her hands and her feeling of hopelessness remained present in her thoughts. She turned around to climb back in bed and forget this ever happened, but there was a figure standing at her doorwar.

Actually, the figure leaned against her door with arms crossed and head down. One foot was on the ground while the other was against the door with the knee bent out. She could make out its blue head, but the blue and silver armor perplexed her. She had never seen anything like it. 'Maximus?' Arla hypothesized in her head.

She didn't dare speak to the mysterious Exo propped up against her door. Her heart raced as she edged closer to the bed quietly. Compared to her nightmare before, there was a much lighter feeling to the air. Not quite happy, but understanding.

The figure spoke with a voice exactly like the one Maximus had and raised its head at the same time. "I never really feared death. Honestly, I never quite understood the prospect. I only saw a beginning to my duties and eventual end. I remember my initial death at the Cosmodrome. Everyone feared the Fallen Captain and his goons, but I swallowed that fear and tried to face them. I had another fear on my mind: dying a false prophet." The figure's head perched up all the way and stared directly at Arla. It was indeed Maximus. He kept his arms folded and knee at an angle and continued speaking. "During my tenure in the Allied Earth Army, we were taught that we had a duty to uphold as the only force between the continuation of civilization and total annihilation. I had heard of the Traveler before I died. The rumor was that it was just past the moon at the time of my death." He momentarily looked down and shook his head before venturing onward.

"The people in my unit, namely the Humans and Awoken, looked to it as a beacon of hope. As an Exo, I had no notion of such ideas. I only saw the objective at hand: Eliminate the Fallen and save millions of lives. . . I now regret being that one-dimensional in that life, but that's how my programming worked. Despite being free-thinking, I still felt like a few lines of my original code remained, and my Guardian revival eliminated this feeling. Once a Guardian, I felt free, but I quickly learned that I had exited one war and entered another. It wasn't a burden though. War was the only thing that I knew throughout my entire life. I didn't feel violent-natured, but I always felt like I was wasting time if I wasn't planning some sort of action against the enemy or completing a mission. Once again, the Traveler freed me of this feeling, and I could tolerate idleness." He looked at the clock Arla kept on the wall and picked it off easily.

"Time," Maximus sighed. "is such a fickle thing. You never know when it's up. Then again, you know this already as you are a Guardian as well. You've experienced unadulterated death too." He started pacing back and forth. He jokingly wagged a finger at Arla during the first sentence. "You killed me you know. You should have called me out of that room when you left, but I don't blame you though. The past is in the past and can't be reversed. I can only assume you left to find out what was happening rather than abandoning me at the first chance. I'm sorry I'm not going to be with you and Lee anymore, but remember, it's not your fault. Don't keep blaming yourself." The apparition walked to the door. "I'll see you on the other side Arla."

As Maximus stepped through the door, Arla's vision turned white and then gradually turned black. Suddenly, she felt the grains of stones at her back. The pain had subsided some in her hands, and a calming peace leaked into her heart. She looked up at the midday sky mostly occupied by the Traveler, as if thanking it for the feeling.

Arla was torn between which to believe. The dream or the nightmare. One was accusative and vengeful yet somewhat believable because she hadn't known Maximus that long. The other was much less malignant; the Maximus there was just accusative enough to be believable, but something told Arla that they were only figments of her imagination. Despite the peace she felt in her heart, her soul still ached with sorrow. She lost two people close to her within a day of each other; it wasn't a feeling she liked or wished upon anyone.

Her determination crept back into focus. These next few hours would be the last ones she spends looking for Maximus. She understood her mistake but could not afford to dwell on it for much longer unless she wants depression to set in, and, for a Guardian, it would kill many, many times before it subsided.

Arla threw her hands back into the rubble below her and started hauling stones of various sizes out of the way. Three handfuls later, everything shifted for the worse. The stones steadily slipping inward suddenly collapsed on each other and caved into the small pocket of open space in the room below. Unable to counteract the force, the stony current took Arla with it, careening her onto rocks of varying sharpness as she fell. She had removed her helmet just after waking up, and it came back to haunt her now. Rocks cut her face and hands. The pain that dulled with these last two sleeping spells returned with an unrelenting fury.

The cascading rocks eventually settled in the room Arla was trying to dig out. One falling stone hit her square in the back of the head after the fall. The impact jerked her head forward and snapped her neck back. She laid in agony for a few minutes before painfully attempting to stand back up. Loose rocks shifted beneath her feet and caused her already unsteady balance to be even more so. Her vision was swimming in front of her as she moved forward clumsily. Through the migraine starting in her head and watery vision, she made her way to the place she believed Maximus would likely be buried.

He was definitely in this room, or at least had been. Ever since the Traveler struck him with its pure light at the Tower, there had been some sort of invisible aura around Maximus, leaving a steady trail behind it. Whether or not he knew anything about this trail or signature, Arla knew not, but it was guiding her to a giant pile of rubble near the stairway where the light signature was by far the strongest in the room. Hope drizzled with anticipation filled Arla for the first time in what seemed like forever. She swiped away armfuls of rocks and followed this invisible yet tangible aura to its core within the rocks. Nothing was there. No piece of armor, no piece of Maximus, nothing. Then it dawned on Arla why the signature was so strong.

This is the exact spot Maximus died. All of his light exited his body at once in this spot and returned to the Traveler, but some stayed behind as a sort of residue. With someone as powerful as Maximus had been, Arla imagined that there was a brilliant flash of light as he died, completely covered up in the building.

The realization quickly extinguished Arla's hope. Everything started to spin at a breakneck speed. The epiphany and lingering shock of Maximus' death overwhelmed her body frail from the toils of the last couple days. Arla carefully laid down on the rocks and tried to get as comfortable as was possible on a bed of rocks. Suddenly and extremely softly, she picked up a tiny sliver of movement beneath her. She shifted to make the movement stop. 'Stupid rats,' she thought to herself, trying to focus on anything but death, the prospect of death, what lies beyond it, or any of the events from the last couple of days.

The movement returned much weaker this time. Not able to think straight, Arla punched the ground as hard as she could with her left fist. That's when she heard it. An almost inaudible "Ow." She snapped out of the trance she was trying to put herself in and began digging right where she had been trying to lay. Hope once again surged through her veins and stopped, at least for the moment, the pain encroaching all of her body. She ignored the cuts and bruises that covered her body and dug as hard and fast she could until she found it.

A black Ghost with miniscule white dots specifically arranged around its shell to look like the stars, lay, almost camouflaged with the dark room, lay motionless in the clearing Arla had just dug up.

Arla gingerly snatched up the Ghost. 'What was his name?' She tried with all her might, but couldn't remem…"Starco!" Arla exclaimed into the air. Tears of joy began to make their way down the same streams their sad predecessors pioneered. "You're alive!"

She held the Ghost in front of her. It was in bad shape, but it weakly floated an inch or two above her hand. The rocks had beaten him senseless. Several of the corners were severely damaged and the blue eye had a small flicker to it. The blink was also long and strained. Starco said nothing. He only stared at his Awoken savior who dug him up from the rubble. Momentarily, he looked down at the patch she rescued him from and then turned back to Arla. He took a long, blink. "Maximus…" Starco struggled. "Thanks...thanks you...Arla…He's sorry...so so sorry..." His voice trembled and trailed off at the end.

Arla, full of immediate concern and with tears still streaming down her face, replied, "He's got nothing to be sorry for. Let's get you back to the Tower."

Starco said nothing. He stared directly into Arla's eyes. He moved his shell plating as if to say something, but only blinked long and slow. The Ghost shuddered softly for a second before its light flickered off and its hover ceased.

Starco was gone. . .and he took Maximus with him. Tears of joy became tears of anguish, Arla's most used ally as of late. She pulled the dead Ghost close to her chest and cried harder than she had ever cried before, surpassing all of the others in the last couple of days. Maximus had just died in her arms.

It didn't take much digging to find Maximus' dead body in the rubble. He had been situated just below Starco. She was in no condition to do so, but she had to see for herself what happened to Maximus.

He wore unfamiliar armor. A beautiful creation of dark blues and shining silver with highlights running down the arm and onto the gauntlets. Arla had no clue where this armor came from, but Maximus must have found it in this room because she didn't walk into the Armory with him wearing that. Dust covered several sections of the magnificent armor. Several large slabs of concrete impaled his body with dark pools of fluid around them. There was no way he could have possibly survived. After removing the helmet to reveal a lightless and dead face, Arla discovered that Maximus' head was undamaged. She could only hope that his death was swift and painless.

She tapped the center of his chest armor and Maximus dissipated into shards of light that danced around in the dark room for about 30 seconds before filing out of the hole Arla fell through. Arla knew what she needed to do.

It was a solemn walk to the center of the City. She got several concerned looks and comments from passing citizens as she walked with her head down and tears still flowing. Guardians generally didn't show any negative emotion or injury in direct public eye; the fact that someone as powerful as a Huntress seemed alien to the citizens.

There she stood, still clutching Starco's lifeless shell, directly beneath the hulking mass of the Traveler. Its dilapidated form seemed just as broken as Arla's heart and soul, but she would recover with time. At least for now, the Traveler was permanently frozen in a state of decay.

The custom to honor fallen Guardians was to go to the center of the City and return the dead Ghosts to their master and creator, the Traveler. It was said that it absorbed the remnants of their light and the Guardian within it to build its ranks to fight a different battle against the Darkness, just not one that mortals could see. The fighting spirits of the dead would live on next to the Guardians in their hearts, minds, and souls. Tossing the Ghosts to the Traveler could only be done if the shell was mostly intact, something quite rare in recent past with the extremely aggressive attack patterns the Darkness had been using the last few days.

Arla kissed the edge of Starco's shell. "I'm sorry Maximus. Goodbye friend." She reared back her arm, and put all of her remaining strength into the throw. Her arm shot forward with a strength she had no idea was even possible given her condition.

The Ghost's shell spun end-over-end as it ascended far into the air, almost to the point that it couldn't be seen. After several seconds of flight, there was a small _blink_, and the Ghost was gone.

Maximus is at peace.

Arla did the one thing she didn't think she would ever do again. She bowed her head and body, just like the one she had to use back in the Reef. She didn't bow to submit to the Traveler's power…

but in memory of Maximus.

_End of Part 1_


	23. Going off the Grid

Part 2

Re-Illumination

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Chapter 23

Going off the Grid

There was a dull flash of light in the dark room. Aside from that, four small lights remained in the room: two yellow and two light blue. The yellow lights and one of the blue illuminated nothing around them but definitely alerted the other blue light which had just activated moments after it detected something moving in the room. "Hello?" the lone blue light called into the darkness. The three lights disappeared. "Who's there?" Silence continued to fill the room. There was the heavy thud of boots as it moved to a corner of the room, but the three lights remained absent.

The lone light moved to where it saw the lights. It activated its flashlight and swung around the room. It floated around in a circle but found nothing. Still suspicious, it floated back towards the nightstand next to the bed and watched for the next few minutes just to make sure nothing was in the room. It didn't detect anything hostile, but there had definitely been movement in the room. Eventually the lone light declared to itself that there was nothing in the room and rationalized the movement as a bug or something, and the footfalls were just someone outside the door. The lone light then shut off and noted any movement in the room as an insect that somehow got in.

However, there was indeed someone in the room. Standing on the opposite side of the bed from the lone light and the room's only occupant was a shadowy figure. Other than its footsteps, it glided smoothly across the floor. It crept back to the window in the room and moved it so that the Moon's light seeped directly onto the occupant in the bed. An Awoken female with greenish-blue skin lie sleeping beneath the sheets of a plush bed with her brown hair strewn across the pillow and blanket. Dried tear trails streaked down her face with no evidence of being wet within the last few hours or so, however the small wet spot on the bed hinted that the woman had likely cried herself to sleep.

Satisfied with its investigation, the figure moved the curtain back into place moved back into the darkest part of the room. Once there, it threw its arms out horizontally and disappeared in a dull flash of light.

The light reappeared in a clinic room. The lights were on but were dimmed enough to still disguise the shadowy figure. It saw a human male laid out on a hospital bed with various machines hooked up to various parts of his body. His face remained heavily bruised from a recent adventure, while bandages covered several parts of his arms and legs along with shoulder wraps on both sides. The man was in really rough shape, far worse than the figure had originally imagined. The figure was silently apologized to the man for not being able to tell him about what happened. It regretted causing the injuries that left him severely injured, so he had to miss the last couple of days.

He would understand what happened in due time though, granted he ever got to leave the hospital ward. The doctors rated his chance of survival at 60%. If he passed on, he could be revived via Ghost interaction, but the most recent scan of his body showed severe damage. He would have to wait several weeks and go through several critical surgeries to correct the now-permanent damage. Where the damage came from, only the man knew, and he would likely not divulge that information. Even then, he still needed to make a total recovery, which also was not guaranteed.

The figure moved back in front of the bed. It threw out its arms and, in a flash of light, disappeared.

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Arla woke up slowly in the morning. It was rare for her to jump straight out of bed, and today, she could already tell, was going to be a long day. Pain pounded her head into submission and the light leaking through the curtain did not help, and she felt like her vision was spinning while seeing double. She pulled the blankets back over her head, closed her eyes, and tried to make the pain go away. When that failed to help, she shielded her eyes with her hand and stumbled to the curtain.

She placed her hand on it and then noticed something: this isn't how she remembered leaving it last night. Arla thought long and hard to try and remember moving it several inches from actually covering up all of the window. It was as if it was opened specifically to see something on or in the bed. Ignoring the pain the extra light caused her, Arla unclasped the curtain and examined it in better light. She noticed four prints the size of a finger on the side that faced the window and one that could belong to a thumb on the other side. These fingerprints were much larger than her own fingers. "Strange," she said curiously. "Stargazer, did you detect anyone in the room last night?"

Stargazer, who was in a standby state on the nightstand, reactivated and opened her blue eye. She floated over to where Arla stood holding the curtain. "I did detect movement and heard heavy boot steps last night, but I when I investigated, there wasn't anyone or anything in the room. I think the footsteps came from someone outside the door and the movement was an insect, a cockroach perhaps."

Repulsed by the idea of a roach roaming her room, Arla immediately denied the claim. "I highly doubt a roach could pull a curtain and leave fingerprints this big."

"Let me see that for a second," Stargazer requested, scanning the fabric. She took a moment to analyze the results. "Hmm...That's peculiar."

"What's peculiar?"

"Nothing. How are you feeling this morning?" Stargazer responded, trying to deflect the conversation.

"I'm fine," Arla lied. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing. I swear!" Arla raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "It's nothing important; I promise. Why did you lie to me?" Stargazer suddenly sounded hurt.

"What do you mean I lied?" Arla responded knowing she'd been caught.

"My scans show signs of a mild concussion caused by a direct hard impact originating from the back of your head."

Arla stood back surprised. She knew Ghosts were powerful, but she didn't know they could analyze injuries in that much detail. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh I don't know. It's not like I was there or anything. You shouldn't underestimate your Ghost. Should I send for the doctors to confirm my scans?"

"Nonono," Arla said quickly, waving her hands in front of her and dropping the curtain. "I'll just take some aspirin, and everything'll be fine." She walked over to the dresser and pulled out the pain pills and popped one in her mouth. She back around to where her Ghost was floating. "See, all better," she claimed with a fake smile.

Stargazer did not seem convinced in the slightest. "You do realize that it takes 30 minutes for those to take effect right?"

Arla closed the drawer. "Fine you caught me. My head feels like someone's pounding a hammer on it constantly. I'm also slightly dizzy, but that could be because it's morning."

"Any other symptoms? Don't lie."

"No. None at all. Check me if you want." 

"I cannot detect the pain you feel or specific discomforts. Me detecting that would be like you being able to tell how many bullets are in a gun solely based on the fact that it's a gun."

Arla gave this some thought. "Touche," she admitted.

"You really should just rest today, maybe tomorrow. Return to your duties when you're fully healed."

"Well, I've got 30 minutes. I'll go for a walk or hit the gym. Besides, I haven't done that in a few days anyway."

"You know that's not what I meant..."

"But think of it comparatively. Lifting weights or walking is much less intense than sprinting, firing a gun, and dodging enemy fire at the same time."

"I guess it's my turn to say 'Touche,'" Stargazer relented. "Fine. You can lift weights at the gym but that's it. No treadmill or anything else got it. And if I detect something's wrong, I'm alerting the doctors and telling them about your condition and how you denied treatment…"

"Other than a pain pill."

"Yes. Other than a pain pill."

Arla smiled. "Glad to see we could come to a disagreement." She set about the business of changing out of her sleepwear and into a gray tank top and black shorts.

"I'm never going to understand you organics," Stargazer commented earnestly.

"Don't worry," Arla replied with a laugh. "I still don't understand them, and I'm one of them."

"Well, I do know one thing organics encourage."

"What would that be?" Arla asked.

"Hold still…"

"What are you do-?" All of a sudden, a curtain popped up and hot water sprayed from a nozzle that appeared in the ceiling. The shower surprised Arla completely, but it was needed. She saw all the dust, grime, and other filth that caked her body go down the drain that appeared in the floor. The water eventually tapered off and the curtain dropped. Arla's gym clothes were soaked along with every part of her body. Stargazer waited just outside the curtain. "Cleanliness," she said simply.

Arla burst out laughing not to humor her, but because she found the statement funny. Of the time she had spent around Guardians, she couldn't believe Stargazer thought so highly of cleanliness. Arla was fairly certain that the Tower would be uninhabitable if half of the Titans took off their armor.

She changed out of the sopping wet clothes and put on her spare gym clothes which consisted of the same articles of clothing just dark blue with a red stripe down the side. She pulled on her shoes. "Alright let's get going."

"Just know my apprehensions," Stargazer reminded Arla. She nodded in response and exited the door. She walked down the hall with a small towel draped over her neck towards the fitness center a short elevator ride and stroll away.

It was empty when she entered, in fact the lights were off. Arla checked her watch. "Hmm...I guess nobody has been in here today," she said to herself and Ghost. "It's almost 10 in the morning." Arla reached for the switch but couldn't seem to find it. Then she saw something in the distance.

Three lights seemingly floating in the distance: two yellow and one blue. The blue looked very similar in color to that of a ghost and slowly bobbed up and down as if it were hovering like one. Her heart rate increased as she took a couple steps in the room. She kept her hands in a defensive position, ready to strike if something came at her. Arla took a couple more steps towards the small and distant lights.

Something grabbed her shoulder from behind, "Miss?" a voice said at the same time.

By complete instinct, Arla grabbed the hand, ducked down, and threw the arm's owner over her head onto the padded floor of the gym. She held her foot on what she thought was the stranger's chest and pinned him or her to the floor. She glanced up to see if the lights were still there, but they had disappeared. Suddenly, the lights flickered on, and she could see the person who had crept up behind her.

It was Cayde-6. Immediately, Arla took her foot off of the Vanguard leader's chest and helped him up. He dusted himself off. "Excellent takedown Miss Nublier. That certainly surprised me as much as I did you."

"You ok?" she asked earnestly, taking pride in the complement but not acknowledging it on the outside.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I need to speak with you. Do you have a few minutes?"

"Of course," she obliged. "I always have time for the Vanguard. I do have a quick question though if I may."

"Go right ahead. I'm all ears."

"What's going on with the gym?"

"We're doing a bit on maintenance on a couple parts of the Tower. The gym will be done within a week. That information was posted on a bulletin two days ago. Something you would have surely seen had you been here. Which leads me to my question, where have you been the last few days? Before yesterday evening, your Ghost hadn't checked in since you returned from the strike."

"I was at the armory."

"You sure? The armory was destroyed by an earthquake a couple days ago."

"I'm aware. I was there with a member of my fireteam." Certain feelings started creeping back into existence. She had to stem them as long as Cayde was here. 'I'm fit for duty. I'm fit for duty.' Arla repeated in her head to keep back the tears that wanted to well up.

"Well, I see you got out ok. I'm guessing that your friend was the one that was sent to the medical station. How is he doing? Pardon if it is a she."

"No," Arla whispered, failing to hold back the tears creeping into her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that Arla?"

"No!" She practically yelled. "I was the one in the medical tent. My teammate got trapped in a lower floor."

"Again, are you sure? Reports only tell of one person that was found at the scene, and I guess that was you...Wait a minute, you attacked a Titan? That's not like you."

Frustration and annoyance started to well up in Arla. "I escaped the doctors and nurses and sprinted to the wreckage. I needed to get my teammate, but one of the Titans didn't believe me and wouldn't let me pass. So yes, I took him down in almost the exact same way I did you."

"Well, either way, I have an assignment for your fireteam…"

Arla hung her head at the sound of fireteam. "We can't," she said regretfully.

Cayde-6 suddenly turned slightly hostile. "You can't?" he said sarcastically. "I didn't ask if you wanted an assignment. I'm giving it to _you_ because I couldn't find Maximus and neither could Ikora."

"WE CAN'T!" Arla yelled, the tears very obvious in her eyes. She then softened her voice. "_I_ can't. Also, you won't ever find Maximus. He's dead."

The information caused Cayde to step back a bit in surprise. "Dead? No way. He had a light and connection to the Traveler that rivaled only the Speaker's, and you're telling me he's dead."

The tears started flowing, but Cayde didn't seem to care. Then again, how could he? He was an Exo, a stern one at that. Maximus had legitimate emotions, at least as much as an Exo could have. He was always different in that sense, but all the Exos had more prevalent emotions as Guardians. "I...know he's...dead. He was...crushed under the Armory," Arla sniffled. "His Ghost died on my hand. Maximus died in my arms. Don't believe me, watch the footage." She summoned Stargazer. "Turn off the lights and show Cayde-6 the footage from the time we entered the Armory until I came to the Tower. Accelerate it in monotonous parts, so we're not here for two days." While Stargazer played the her memories, Arla moved to the opposite corner of the gym, turned off the lights, and let the tears silently fly in the darkness. While she cried, she felt like there was some sort of presence extremely close. Like it could have reached out and touched her. The presence comforted and scared her at the same time.

Cayde-6 sat on the padded floor and watched the disaster that has been Arla's life these last couple days. Arla never looked at it; she'd experienced it once and did not want to again. She heard the Titan commanding her to stand down and walk away. Cayde called out to her, "He was right y'know. This Titan right here. We declared that area a hazard to any sort of life with the Wall being partially destroyed. I realize that Maximus was your teammate after all, but I thought you would be the last of all people to disobey an order."

Arla ignored his comments. She could hear rubble shifting and her strained grunts as she moved rocks and debris out of the way. A few minutes and accelerated footage later, she heard the ground shift followed by her fall into the room.

Several minutes passed in complete silence minus what was going on in the recording. "Pause it Ghost," Cayde requested. "I've seen enough." Arla risked a glance. It was paused on a shot where she held Starco's withered form in her hand and looked at Maximus' mutilated body. Immediately, she turned away still filled with the shame that she believed she left him behind.

She heard Cayde's footfalls coming her direction. He sat down next to her as she buried her face in her hands. "I left him in there to check out what was going on outside," she bawled. "It was the least I could do."

Cayde sighed. "If it's any consolation, I'm sorry. We only looked above ground and thought that you were the only one nearby…"

Arla suddenly jumped up. "WELL, YOU THOUGHT WRONG! WE COULD HAVE SAVED HIM!"

The Vanguard stood up and tried to put an arm around Arla's tear-stricken form. She refused it at once. Slightly put off by this, he replied. "In all honesty Arla, I've seen much worse. He was likely dead on impact judging by the penetrations in his armor. Even if we could have helped, he would have bled out before we could get proper medical attention and, judging by his Ghost's condition, revival would have been impossible. I'm sorry about your loss, but we have a war to fight. We can't spend all this time and manpower on a single Guardian. We've lost thousands of them, and nobody has given up yet..."

These words were daggers into Arla's faith in the cause she fought for. She risked her life many times for this Exo who now claimed her vain efforts were a waste of time. She stormed her way towards the exit. "You said it yourself Cayde. He had one of the strongest light signatures and connections with the Traveler we've seen since the Speaker. Whether you want to admit it or not, Maximus was one of the most powerful Guardians to walk these halls." With that, she stormed off angrily to her room, completely disgusted by the person she called a Commanding Officer.

She needed a way off the Tower fast to re-evaluate her position as a Guardian. Arla had no desire to quit (she couldn't), but she wanted to take some time to herself.

She was alone. Maximus was dead, and Lee was severely injured. Life did not seem to get much worse than it did right now.

She wound up heading over to the broken section of Wall to help with repairs around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Her hands were still cut and scraped from all the digging, but she bought an "extra protection maintenance package" from Eva Levante. She repaired the gloves in about an hour. Right after, Arla headed to the Wall.

After meeting with the on-duty CO, she took up a sniping position as directed. Her recent reputation preceded her and earned her an isolated spot in a section of Wall. The job was just as monotonous as she remembered from those days just after the attack. She sat silently with an eye trained on the nearby woods. She could see the snowcapped mountains in the distance with their frigid winds and likely hundreds of Fallen grunts or Hive tunnels.

The isolation gave Arla time to think though. Yes, she was alone without a fireteam, but she wouldn't let it slow her down. She'd lost many before, fighting with the Fallen in the Reef before being a Guardian. Then there was the dirty business of capturing the House of Illusion, but that hadn't lasted long. They remained "loyal" for only a few years before a full revolt erupted on several mining colonies. Rumor is that the Queen during that era had to punish several of the Illusion leaders on a monthly basis because they wouldn't meet quotas or other shortcomings. It was no surprise that they revolted and killed hundreds of their former masters.

Arla had been so young at that time, only a Private First Class, basically little more than a grunt. Apparently not having learned their lesson the first time, she had heard around the Tower that the Awoken have another Fallen House under their control. The House of Wolves they were called. They were known for being extremely cunning and savage. The hunted in packs and coordinated attacks in devious and merciless ops. Granted their history, especially before the Battle for the Twilight Gap, it was a wonder the Queen had even considered allowing them to become protectorates. They were dangerous.

A thought crossed Arla's mind. 'Maybe that was why they contacted me not long ago,' she thought.

Suddenly, Arla saw a commotion below her. A large group of Guardians was gathering at the bottom of the Wall. "Stargazer, can you amplify their voices?"

"You got it."

Arla leaned over the edge of the Wall and honed in on their conversation. A Hunter in green and yellow armor stood on something she could not quite make out. He held his helmet in his left hand. "Ladies and Gentleman, we need not fear the Fallen just beyond these woods anymore. I'm leading a group of three into this forest and the mountains to exterminate as many Fallen as we can. I have intel on where they've set up several camps, and we're going to eliminate every single one of them. More information goes to those who want to come with me."

"Brave plan," Arla said to Stargazer. "I'm fairly certain that the Vanguard has had plans to execute a move in those woods."

"There's nothing in the Vanguard's public archive. There are several strikes planned for the Moon, Venus, and Mars as well as two other plans noted as Raids, but they have no plans to execute any of them as of yet. Something about going beyond the Wall is never mentioned in any of these pl...wait, got something. There's a glancing reference about a supposed op. It's listed as a Black Op. About 12 years ago, the reference just says that 6 Guardians were dispatched to investigate an energy anomaly. It seems that none came back after severely underestimating the Fallen's firepower. I'm getting the feeling that this man is trying to do something not authorized by the Vanguard…"

"But has game-changing applications. Just think how fast the Wall can be repaired when we're not under the threat of a Fallen attack!"

"But that makes us vulnerable. The Fallen have a tendency to attack when we're least expecting it. That many City workers with little to no Guardian protection would be a complete slaughter with the possibility of a full-scale invasion of the City.

"I agree that something needs to be done with the Fallen dug in so close to the City, but we can't be making rash decisions like this. What if the entire team is killed? Nobody will be coming for you, and we will be gone permanently. I didn't bring you back to life just to watch you die again."

Arla pondered this for a moment. The crowd below grew uneasy at this Guardian's request. A Warlock in yellow robes joined the Hunter and stepped next to him. She decided what she wanted to do. "You know what the old saying is. You only live once!" Arla clamored onto the edge of the wall and leapt off the edge.

She angled her freefall so she would land right next to the Hunter. Hopefully nobody would take the spot she now declared was hers. Stargazer's voice clicked on in her helmet. "You do realize that the saying doesn't exactly apply to Guardians right?"

"Oh well. We're doing this, and you're coming with me."

"I see that," Stargazer admitted reluctantly.

Arla activated the Double Jump to slow her descent and landed confidently next to the Guardian with unprecedented precision. Several Guardians had pointed her out as she fell but the Hunter hadn't listened for their cries to back away until she landed right next to him. The Hunter fell backwards thinking he was going to get clobbered.

He recovered and got into Arla's face. "What the...Who are you?! You could've killed me."

Arla got equally in his face. "It doesn't matter who I am to you. What does matter is that I'm joining you, and I highly doubt any of these people are going to want to join an off-the-grid op that has a high risk of killing everyone in the team."

Arla seemed to have immediately humbled the man. "So then why are you so willing?" he inquired.

"My motives are my own. Stay out of them," Arla retorted, but in her head she thought, 'Because I have nothing to lose.

There was a twinge of excitement in her gut, but something else stirred there too. This was the first time she was going to run a mission without Maximus or Lee taking any part of it at all. Despite the Traveler's close proximity, the Darkness seemed to ooze out of the forest like a thick haze. Arla folded her arms. "Are we leaving yet?"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Unbeknownst to all below, two figures sat in the shadow of a broken section of wall. It's the same three lights from earlier. The larger one with two yellow lights sat on a steel beam completely in shadows. "It's a risky game she wants to play. Going into the mountains like that," the singular light staying close by said. "Any Guardians the Vanguard have sent in there have never come out alive."

The larger figure shifted where it sat and focused on the Huntress they were observing. She was definitely one of the more appealing Awoken it had seen, that the figure was willing to admit openly, but it had never really focused on physical beauty or any kind of beauty to be honest. It focused on its duty. "She's different than I remember. Since these deaths I mean."

"Deaths? There's only been one," the single light asked perplexed.

"The one in the hospital bed died about five minutes ago. They've likely revived him with his Ghost, but his recent scan still has some damage to it that will take several weeks, perhaps months of surgery to mend what happened."

"What happened? I don't seem to recall."

"How can you not remember? It's the only time we've seen someone blown up by a friendly rocket launcher."

"Oh yeah. How long have we been doing this? I don't know why I can't remember these things."

"Our partnership hasn't been too long, but I also can't remember. You think that's just part of making things seem timeless?"

"Let's not get too deep. We still need to see how she'll turn out," the yellow pair of lights said gesturing with its hand toward the bottom of the Wall where the Huntress they'd been watching jumped from the top of the Wall. It was a flawless landing that caught everyone in the area off guard.

Silence pervaded for a few moments as the crowd began to disperse and the three Guardians met to presumably discuss their plans for exterminating the nearby Fallen. Then the blue light piped up, "You said she's changed. How so?"

"I don't know. She just seems to have a different air about her. It's a mix of solemn reverence and...I just lost my train of thought."

"Might want to go find it then," the blue light said sarcastically.

"Be quiet or I'll knock you off the ledge."

"You forgot another couple things. They can't see us, so shoving me off wouldn't result in them seeing me in any case. Also, you can't necessarily shove me off the ledge. However they'd see you pretty clearly."

"Wait a second…"

"I've got a few days."

"Stop twisting my words!" Silence took over again momentarily. "You're just as tangible and visible as I am. That Ghost almost saw us in her room earlier."

"Very true. It's amazing that she didn't see us. What do you think would've happened if they did?"

The two lights thought for a moment. "I don't really focus on the 'what ifs?' too much, but I'm guessing that Huntress would have discovered us with a simple flick of the light."

"The gym was definitely a close call. There was barely any cover. Where'd you wind up hiding?"

"I was in a corner of the gym. Got pretty hard when she came and sulked right next to where I stood. I didn't move while she sat there."

"Must've been hard."

"It was. One bad move and she would have seen me. Where'd you hide?"

"I stayed near the dumbbells where we were originally."

"Look," it pointed the Guardians. "They're about to start moving out."

"We following them?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't we? It's perfect. It's dark throughout the entire thing with minimal lighting for the Fallen. We'll blend in perfectly and won't go noticed while the gunfire flies and the battle cries screech. You ready?"

"I hate this part."

"Oh come on. Lighten up! It's fun and the fastest means of transportation we've got." The shadowy figure stood up and threw his arms out. _WHOOSH! _

In the _blink_ of an eye, they were gone.


	24. Descent

Chapter 24

Descent

Everything was quiet during that first day of traveling. No Fallen popped up out of the forest, but that actually increased the tense feeling shared between all three of the Guardians. Now, they sat at a fire the Warlock made with the help of Sunsinger powers.

The Warlock sat straight up on a large rock they set up camp near; he poured over a book, a physical book with pages and not a virtual one, looking over at the other two Guardians every once in awhile. The Hunter and organizer of this expedition sat on a log, slightly hunched over, staring blankly at the fire. He was a red Exo with blue eyes that went by the name of Kole-44. Arla leaned back on a log with her feet within a foot of the flames; by no means was she comfortable, but the temperature had dropped once again, and she'd take all the warmth she could get.

Nobody had said a word to her, as if they already knew who she was along with her recent past. In fact, there had been little talking throughout the entire time they'd been walking. What talking that was present was really just names and basic commands. Arla didn't know how far they walked, but it felt like forever, and there was something eerie about these woods. Every step she took felt like it was observed; every snap of a twig was noted; every branch brushed out of the way was heavily scrutinized by an unseen onlooker. It was creepy.

However, nothing happened during the day despite that feeling, but that feeling of being watched only magnified as the sun set beneath the nearby mountains. Arla was fed up with the silence. "Hey you, Kole. What's the deal with all the silence? If we're working as a team, we need to communicate effectively."

Kole's gaze shifted from the fire to Arla. "I don't talk to traitors," he said aggressively and harshly. Those words were sharper than the knife she kept at her belt, but they also perplexed her.

"Traitor? When did I betray anybody?" Arla asked, completely confused by the accusation.

Kole stood up and paced on the opposite side of the fire. "Word travels quickly around the Tower. I don't know how long you've been a Guardian, but I do know that you are part of that selected group that practically everybody else knew other than those that got in. I heard about your run in with that Titan at the disaster site to recover the body and Ghost of a squadmate you left to die in the ruins. Heard you didn't even find him, so not many people believe your story."

"I'd hardly call that being a traitor."

"No? Isn't that why the Awoken Queen planned to have you executed. Only you hijacked the prison ship and got shot down on an asteroid."

Arla's mouth dropped open. "How did you…?" She could count on her fingers whom she told her death to, and they each got slightly altered versions of the story. Only she knew the full goings-on. The fact that this Exo knew who she was and how she died baffled her.

"Not everyone is your friend on the Tower, especially when you upset them. To be frank, I don't want you here, but you skill as a soldier precedes you, and that's exactly what we're going to need to get out of here alive, so if you want to avoid causing any conflict with myself or our silent acquaintance on the rock, I suggest you keep your mouth shut your head on a swivel. This is no man's land, free of all laws and jurisdiction. Anything goes without punishment." If Exo had truly flexible faces, Kole's would certainly be morphed into a smirk.

"I refuse to be treated this way!" Arla yelled, appalled by this Exo's command. 'Who does he think he is?' she thought. Something clicked in her head. "Was that a threat?"

"What was a threat?" he deflected.

"You said there are no rules out here. Are you trying to kill me?"

"Of course not!" Kole objected. "I'm setting boundaries."

"Well, you're boundaries sound a bit harsh to me. We have enemies other than ourselves; y'know, Fallen likely surrounding us as we speak."

"There's nothing to worry about for now. We're 5 miles away and 300 feet below the nearest Fallen checkpoint. They're not going to bother us yet, but if they do, it'll just be grunts in a scouting team." The Exo stood up and threw down the portable tent he kept with him. "I'm shutting down for now."

"Finally," Arla muttered to herself. Once the tent zipped shut, she looked back at the rock the Warlock had been sitting on during their conversation. He wasn't there anymore. Instead, there was a tent very similar to the Hunter's sitting near the rock. Once she was sure that they were sound asleep (or shut down), Arla kicked some dirt over the fire until only the glowing embers remained.

She clicked her helmet into place and turned on the night vision. Everything was cast in a pale or dark green or black as the infrared sensors converted the normally invisible light into something Arla could see. Now all she needed was a vantage point to scope out any possible attackers; she wasn't quite convinced that nothing was lurking nearby. Something or someone was watching them, she knew it in her gut.

Arla spied a tree with strong looking limbs only a few feet from their makeshift campsite. There was no telling what it was even with the night vision, but that didn't bother her. She double jumped onto a lower branch several feet above her head and pulled herself on top of it. From there, she angled herself to jump onto one of the highest and sturdiest branches about the same distance up. Another double jump and she went flying toward the intended branch. The jump actually took her over the branch, causing the landing to be much harder than she intended, and the sudden impact snapped the branch and sent her tumbling down the tree.

Smaller branches lashed her face as she tumbled helplessly down the tree. Out of pure desperation, she reached at a branch that hung about 12 feet above the ground. Somehow, Arla snagged it and cancelled all of her downward momentum. The branch bounced with the sudden addition of her weight but seemed to support her weight nicely. Her arms burned from supporting her weight and taking the shock of the fall. Arla pulled up and swung a leg over the branch just as a sickening _CRACK _came from the limb. 'Crap, crap, crap!' she thought as she slowed her efforts in an attempt to preserve the branch. A second _CRACK _rang out and sent her falling to the ground.

She landed with a thud on top of a root and a few rocks. Pain exploded in her head, likely the mild concussion getting reaggravated, not to mention her back and arms which burned from the fall and hanging respectively. The fall knocked the wind out of her and left her sprawled out on the ground looking up at the Hive-infested Moon. Steadily black encroached her vision and took over.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Arla woke to the sound of rustling leaves and nearby movement. She opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by the still-activated night vision. Immediately, it turned off with only a thought letting the normal sunlight through without any assists. What she saw made her freeze. All around her were Fallen. Silently, Arla counted 4 Dregs, a Vandal, and one Captain. From the brush she had landed in, she couldn't tell if they'd noticed her as of yet, but their rough and garbled language filling the air did not encourage her.

Ever so slowly, Arla risked a glance at her right thigh where she had a blue hand cannon strapped. What she needed to do was get out of there and find the others as quickly as possible or get back to the City. One of the Dregs suddenly turned its head her way and stared directly at where she lay. Everything turned to ice; there was no time to think, only act...or die.

Arla activated the cloaking feature in her suit and quickly shuffled away before the Dreg made it over to her, ignoring the shooting pain in her back and head as she did so. She grabbed the hand cannon and ducked back into the brush. Slowly, she edged her way near the curious grunt and took out her knife. In one swift motion, Arla grabbed the Dreg by the head at the mouth and yanked him to the ground. At the same time, she stabbed her knife into its torso, followed by a sharp jab at its neck just to make sure it wouldn't alert its allies.

Once she was sure it was dead, Arla released its mouth and quietly darted towards the next target. Leading with the knife, she stabbed and tackled the other Dregs within only 30 seconds of each other. By this point, the Captain and Vandal noticed their comrades disappearing at an alarming rate and started a desperate search for Arla. Arla, however, snuck up behind the Vandal and jabbed the bloodied knife into its neck and pulled it into the brush. 'Now for the Captain,' she thought.

Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but trees. No sign of the Captain anywhere as she crouched in the undergrowth. The crunch of leaves immediately behind her drew her attention. The Captain's intimidating shadow grew over her like a weed. In a very rough voice and rougher English, "Do not...move!" it commanded. She felt the tingle of the shock cannon's barrel spark behind her.

'Come get some,' she silently taunted. Arla thrust the knife behind her back into its knee and spun on her knee back onto her feet as she grabbed the hand cannon at her side. She quickly took aim at its head as it howled in pain, but before she could fire, the Captain knocked the gun away with a simple swipe. Arla prepped a grenade in her left hand and started to throw it but she was too late, the powerful Fallen soldier wrenched her left arm awkwardly, followed by a few pops in the shoulder area and more pain, and snagged the grenade. It effortlessly crushed it in its fist.

With nothing else to defend herself with, Arla grabbed her knife and role between its legs. She sidestepped several shots and absorbed one in the chest. It knocked her onto her back momentarily, but she rolled away from the Captain's heavy foot and shoved the knife into its other knee. Wrenching it out while the shock of the blow set in, she filled the knife with electricity and kicked the Captain squarely in the back. It fell on its face and dropped its gun. Taking the opportunity, Arla pinned it and forced the knife its a slit in its armor. Light blue arcs of electricity shot up and down the creature's body as it convulsed due to the amount of voltage. Arla withdrew the knife when the convulsions ended. Using a rag she kept in a pocket on her belt, she wiped off the blade and slipped it into the sheath.

She located her hand cannon and snagged it out of a nearby bush. Now to find the others.

Arla wandered for several hours sending intermittent messages through comms every 5 minutes or so. There was no response. With the hostility at least Kole showed last night, she wouldn't put it past them to abandon her. But here? In no man's land? It went without saying that it was dangerous to move in any place in less than groups of three. Especially just outside the Wall, a lone person or pair was just asking to die a horrendous death.

Arla was on edge. Every sound that was not her own footstep caused her to turn frantically, thinking that another squad of Fallen was about to cut through the trees. Despite that, she had journeyed about 6 miles since the morning, and the terrain had started becoming increasingly rocky. That was strange because the mountains were at least thirty miles away, at least that's what Arla thought. Even stranger was that the forest (if you could call it one anymore with the thinning amount of trees) wasn't sloping upward at all. In fact, it was declining, quite harshly at that.

Completely unexpected, her head started spinning at a dizzying rate. The pain in her arm returned as whatever adrenaline she had left from earlier was now completely gone; she also needed to use the restroom bad, but there aren't necessarily any bathrooms in the middle of nowhere. She eventually couldn't hold it any longer and decided on a good tree, but she needed to keep moving until she found the other. Arla walked for another half hour before she had to stop, eat, and heal.

She sat beneath the shade of a tree in silence and pulled out a field ration pack along with her canteen. Stargazer flashed into her line of sight just after she pulled off her helmet and added water to reconstitute the first pack, General Tso Chicken. She poured the water through its designated area, sealed it, and shook. As she shook, she could feel the heat steadily increasing as the water boiled the noodles in their compartment and thoroughly heated the chicken.

The slightly spicy chicken seemed to not only warm up her mouth, but the food seemed to send warmth in every piece of her being. After a few mouthfuls, she said, "So we're alone again eh Stargazer?"

"Not particularly by choice."

"Do we have any idea how far they've gone ahead of us? It's not like they can teleport."

"I detected movement, likely them leaving, about two hours before you woke up. Also, I don't know if you've realized it yet, but I've had you following their light trail. However it's not pure light, like that of Guardians."

"Impure light? What do you mean?"

"It's a rare thing. Either someone in that pair is infected by the darkness to some extent, or the Fallen's grip on this place is much stronger than the reports say."

"With that way I was treated, I kind of hope that Exo Kole is infected and is slowly dying from the inside."

Stargazer seemed appalled. "Harsh," she stated.

Arla felt the anger boiling inside of her. "He deserves it. Nobody gets to treat me that way and...well..._Nobody_ treats me that way!"

"Do you think that it could be because of what you did a few days ago. Maybe he has some connections to that Titan you embarrassed."

"Do you understand the odds of that?"

"Actually yes. They are 1 in about 216,435."

"Are our numbers really that small? I mean, that would explain the Tower's emptiness." Arla asked, realizing that she only had a few bites of her meal left.

"No. I factored out a few things that you shouldn't be concerned about. I believe that the current Guardian count is just over 900,000. What's on the Tower is just the most active Guardians. That and there are a lot of them doing various missions, and an even larger number of them are working Wall duty."

"Hmm," Arla said through the last bite of food. The package and fork immediately decomposed upon Arla's thought.

"We're lucky that we're able to practically do whatever we want to until the Vanguard-" "Shh!" Arla interrupted.

There it was, just beyond a nearby rock. She could see a Vandal looking down at something covered up by the rock. Arla signaled to Stargazer with one hand and grabbed her weapon with the other. Still facing the other way, the Vandal waved its hand in circles, relaying something to its companions. She grabbed her helmet, ducked and quickly moved toward the rock to hide behind it.

She pressed her back against its rough surface Peering stealthily over the rock, she saw the Vandal waving forward several Dregs into some sort of passage she couldn't see. As far as she could tell, there weren't any other Fallen nearby. Their armor was a color she had never seen on Fallen before: a dark green, darker than the leaves of the evergreen trees that surrounded her. One at a time, the Dregs suddenly rose and shot down, instantly disappearing from sight. Risking being noticed, Arla moved her head higher. She could see something that looked like a drainage cover, but a little more alien. It had six triangles forming a circle that met in the middle. Whenever the Dregs stepped close, the triangles shot retreated and revealed a tube that the Fallen jumped into.

The Vandal, obviously the commander of the squadron, stepped over to the secret path. As expected, it opened, but it didn't jump in. Instead, it looked at the rock. It instantly noticed Arla and jumped back in surprise.

"Shoot!" Arla muttered. There was no way it didn't notice her and she needed to get the jump on it fast. Forming a less than perfect plan on the spot, she moved around the rock opposite of the Vandal. Eventually, she made her way to where the Vandal had been and stood over the passageway. Arla stared down the corner and held her weapon firmly in front of her.

The Vandal never came from the front. Instead, Maximus came from behind. First, she heard the footsteps coming from the rear. Then she saw the strange armor he wore when she found his dead body within the tomb of the Armory. He didn't wear his helmet, and the blue face with some silver plating at the top of his head and yellow eyes identified him as her fallen teammate. Not caring about how odd it was for him to show up, Arla immediately lowered her weapon. "Maximus!" she cried in disbelief. "I thought you were dead!"

"That's what I had you believe now didn't I," he said with the same voice she missed terribly. "It's been a while."

Arla could feel the tears of joy welling up in her eyes. Guarded by a helmet, she let the flow as long as they wanted. "I...I killed you," Arla said between gasps of air. She fell to her knees.

"Are you crying?" Maximus asked. "Please don't; it's me." He walked over and put his arms around her. It seemed like a genuine attempt at comfort, something he's, at least to her knowledge, intentionally done before to either her or Lee. She grabbed one of his arms and pulled it close.

"I'm sorry," she said again and again. Feelings of remorse and happiness stirred around her gut, giving life to an even stronger confusion in her head.

He took a knee and got on her level. "Don't be sorry. It takes more to crush this soul. Let's go get some Fallen!"

This tipped Arla off. 'Wait a minute,' she thought. 'Something's not right. He never mentioned anything about spirits or souls other than "fighting spirits," and he meant that in a figurative sense.' Arla dropped a free hand and grabbed her knife without "him" realizing. She turned her head to look Maximus directly in the face. His eyes flickered. Not in the way they usually do, a small on and off flickering to signify him blinking, but they flashed light blue static for a moment, blinked, and then reappeared. There was also a lack of a light signature on him. How she missed this was a mystery and should've alerted her to his falsehood, but nonetheless, it fooled her for all of three minutes.

This "Maximus" was fake, and Arla couldn't believe it. She pushed away the arm and stood up. "One second," she fake cried. "It's a lot to take in." She walked a few steps away from "Maximus."

She stopped after taking about 4 steps. Anger built out of embarrassment. 'Thank goodness nobody saw that,' she thought to herself. In one swift motion, she transferred her knife from her left hand to her right, spun around on her heel, aimed, and threw the knife with all of her concentrated anger and embarrassment behind it.

As if it were nothing, "Maximus" plucked it out of the air just inches from "his" face. "Trying to kill me again?" he said hurt.

"You're not real!" Arla accused, unable to believe that "he" just caught her knife in mid-air.

Maximus laughed and pulled out two swords with arcs of electricity jumping all over the blades that had been strapped cleverly on his back, so Arla wouldn't see them unless she stood directly behind him. "I'll show you real," he snarled.

Unable to grab her gun in time, the sudden onslaught of jabs and slashes forced to Arla evade strike after strike. The swords narrowly missed her each time, only centimeters from her face and other parts of her body. Little did she know that Maximus was steadily backing her into the rock; a place that she would not be able to escape alive if that happened. Suddenly, she felt herself slam into the rock.

Out of pure desperation, Arla grabbed one of Maximus' hands and wrenched it away. The sword was extremely heavy, heavier than any weapon she'd ever handled before, so she only managed to throw a powerful stab at the imposter's stomach while he she in shock by the sudden turning of the tides. However, his reflexes were too fast and made Arla's move seem stupid and fruitless in the end. She stumbled forward awkwardly.

Arla dropped the sword and rolled to cancel out the rest of her momentum, spinning and grabbing her gun as soon as she got out of the roll. She fired three errant shots that missed their target completely just by plain missing or Maximus' uncanny reflexes obviously beyond what he was capable of in life.

She rolled away from another of his blows and shot once again. This time it slammed into his hand, causing him to drop the remaining sword immediately and yank his hand close to his chest.

Neither of them moved for several seconds. Arla reloaded and suddenly, Maximus reached for a gun at his belt. Both of them shot at practically the same time (Maximus had been just a hair quicker on the trigger).

Arla's bullet struck him directly in the face and killed him instantly; his limp body falling to the ground in a heap, flickering into the dark green armor of the Vandal she had been chasing minutes earlier. There was a sharp pain in the center of Arla's chest, as if she had been...she was.

Maximus' shot landed in the center of her chest and she could see the blood beginning to stain the outside of her armor and start heading for the entry hole. She fell to the ground and tried to apply pressure to the wound, but the strength was quickly draining from all parts of her body. A freezing cold started at her fingertips and toes and steadily worked its way up.

Suddenly, something gave out beneath her, probably the passageway but that was the least of her worries, and Arla found herself falling into what seemed like an endless abyss, and her life felt like it was descending into oblivion. About halfway through the fall, Arla lost consciousness.

By the time she hit the bottom of the tunnel with all the momentum she gathered through the fall, she was unable to do much at all to lessen the impact. The most she could do was angle herself so her shoulder took most of the impact and not her head. After the hard impact sent a sharp and dull pain throughout what feeling she had left in her body and her helmet skittering several feet to her left, she couldn't move. Nothing responded, and her thoughts steadily grew cloudy and incomprehensible. Then the reality of her situation hit her, and Arla then realized that Stargazer was right all along. It was stupid to come down here and even stupider to try and find the teammates that abandoned her after she fell from the tree. Within only a few minutes, Arla took a final breath and ceased bleeding…

...And nobody was going to save her.


	25. Shadows

Chapter 25

Shadows

The lights blinked in on top of a tree overlooking an impressive boulder. From there, they could see the Huntress eating some sort of pre-packaged meal.

"I still hate that," the small blue light said.

"You get used to it. It sure beats walking doesn't it?" the twin yellow lights said.

"Like that Huntress below us? I agree, but still, could you possibly consider blinking a little less?"

"Ah," he waved a shadowy hand. "you're no fun."

The small light floated to the edge of the shadow the tree created and looked the direction of the Huntress. The pair of lights followed suit and looked down at her as well. Her brown hair seemed to fly everywhere at once, while her eyes still kept the same intense glow but did look much wearier than when the journey began. "What do you think is going through her mind right now?" the light asked.

"Based on what she's doing right now, 'Let's eat!'"

"You saved the day once again Captain Obvious. Dare I ask again, what do you think she is pondering right now? She did get left by those 'Guardians,' _if_ you could call them that."

"No I cannot call those two cowards Guardians. They left her to die and ran back to the Wall happy of all things. Speaking of, did you check on who those two were like I asked?"

"I did. The Hunter is an Exo named Kole. He was an AEA soldier like most Exo, but never really amounted to much more than a grunt. He died during the opening stages of that battle for the Cosmodrome. He's been a Guardian for a little over 4 years now."

"Anything on his fireteam?"

"Yes. Currently there's only two people in it due to the death of one of his teammates at that earthquake and Wall collapse about a week ago."

"About a week ago…!"

"Knock it off! You know that song has not been a thing in 200 perhaps 300 years. Back to my point, the living member of his fireteam is the Titan she embarrassed trying to gain access to the rubble."

The yellow lights sat down and pondered this for a moment. "So essentially this was a set up?"

"Precisely. They lured her out here to kill her."

"Doesn't seem to have worked so far," it said looking back at the Huntress eating what looked like a chicken dish.

"I don't know. Look at those Fallen over there."

The yellow lights looked the direction the blue one was. Just beyond the rock the tree overlooked, a squad of Fallen approached some sort of disguised passageway. One by one, the Dregs in the group descended and the Huntress took notice. She moved quietly to where the other side of the rock and looked over it.

The lone Vandal noticed her and proceeded around the rock. The Huntress went the other way and waited at the other end of the rock. Suddenly, the Vandal's form blurred and grew more humanoid. Its white and dark green armor shifted into silver and blue. The helmeted head of the Vadal shifted to the blue head of an Exo. It walked over to the other side of the rock and presented itself to the Huntress.

"You saw that right?!" the yellow lights exclaimed.

"The shifting or the fact that she just sank to her knees and seems to be crying."

"You know what I mean! We need to do something or she'll get killed, and our efforts will be for naught."

The blue light contemplated this for a moment. "I definitely see your point, but that would expose us, and discovery is not an option. She's tough, that's why we're watching her. Let's see what she does."

The disguised Vandal comforted the Huntress and continued to do this for several minutes. Then something changed. The Huntress moved for something on her person with one hand and pushed away the fake Exo's arm of comfort. She walked away.

"See?" the blue light said. "She handled herself quite nicely. Watch this knife throw."

As if on cue, the Huntress spun around and threw the knife at the imposter. The knife sailed end-over-end at the disguised Vandal and looked as though it was on line to hit it square in the face, but it never made it. With incredible speed, it snatched the knife out of the air and tossed it aside. It reached behind its back and pulled out two swords with electricity running up and down the blade.

The disguised Fallen went on a furious assault that kept the Huntress on her heels eventually backing her into the rock. The imposter went for the killing blow but she somehow wrenched one of the swords and ducked away from the Vandal. She lunged with the sword missed and stumbled until she dropped the sword and cancelled her momentum with a roll.

Four shots rang out through the trees as she drew her hand cannon and fired errantly. The Vandal looked like it was doing a goofy dance but evaded all of the bullets and pulled out its own weapon after dropping its other sword due to some sort of hand injury.

The stood completely still for a moment. The Huntress reloaded, but nobody fired. In one swift movement, both of them shot at one time, and both took hits. The Vandal took a shot directly to the face shile the Huntress stood still for several seconds before realizing her injury. She fell backwards and tried to put pressure on the wound.

Instead, the passageway opened and took her down.

The yellow lights had been getting increasingly antsy and angst-ridden. He could barely hold his position atop the tree. It watched in absolute horror as the Huntress plummeted, likely dead, into the Fallen tunnels. It turned to the blue light. "I'm not standing for this any longer. Someone needs to help her." He moved to the beginning of the limb closest to the tree and rushed forward intending to jump off. The shadow slammed into an invisible wall.

The blue light stepped forward. "As I've said before, we can't go out into the light, so I cannot permit you to go after her."

Pointing to the hole with a flat palm, the yellow lights yelled, "But we've been watching her for several days! You're just going to let all of that go to waste?"

The smaller shadow sighed. "It's not that I don't want to. It's that WE CAN'T! Remember?! We can look on from afar but not interact."

The large shadow just stared. "You're unbelieveable," it said, shaking its head.

"It's the rules."

The yellow lights were silent. 'No,' it decided. 'She can't die. Not like this.' The shadow moved to the invisible barrier the blue light set. It plunged its hands directly into it and started pulling open a hole.

"What are you doing? Stop that!"

"SHE CAN'T DIE! If you don't get that, have fun explaining it to her when she joins us and finds out that we could've done something but didn't." The hole wasn't quite big enough to step through yet, but it was getting harder to pull. The blue light was fighting him wholeheartedly.

"I will not let you dissipate in the light!" The barrier exerted even more force on the large shadows hands.

The yellow lights felt their grip falter and the wall push back in. After letting it shrink only slightly, they renewed their fight and quickly increased the size of the hole and jumped through it, plunging right into the open passageway and falling down the chute inside. Still connected to the other lights, the blue light disappeared and joined its companion in the fall.

The chute was narrow and slightly angled to prevent any injury to its users, but it didn't matter to the shadow. What did matter was saving the Huntress at the bottom of it.

Several minutes of falling later, the two shadows stood over the bloodied body of the Huntress. It was almost pitch black and echoed like a tunnel. There was no doubt about it; she was dead, killed by that Vandal.

The blue light hovered around the body but did not touch it. "Happy? She's dead. Now, let's leave before the Fallen find us."

The yellow lights leaned over the body and looked around for something. "What's there to worry about the Fallen finding us when we have an armed guard?"

"You're not suggesting?" The large shadow nodded. "How would you do it?"

"Let's worry about that when I find the Ghost. Ah, here she is." The Ghost was nestled between her arm and torso. The light in its eye was bright, but it said nothing. The large shadow picked it up and raised it to its eyes.

The Ghost looked dead at it without any fear whatsoever. "It's you. I can't believe that it's you."

Though the shadow couldn't smile, it knew that there would be a smirk on its face as it said, "Got that right. It's me. Now little light, if you'd be so kind," it directed the last statement towards the small blue light that just appeared where the shadow's right shoulder would be.

"No," it stated defiantly.

"Yeah well, I didn't necessarily ask." The shadow reached out and snatched the blue light out of the air and kept it from struggling its way out with a firm grip. The large shadow took both in its hands and brought them within inches of each other. A small spark formed between them that lasted for several seconds.

Once it was sure of its plan's success, he released the Ghost and the entity. The Ghost back away and started to separate into its individual pieces with a giant orb of energy surrounding the "eye." Suddenly, it slammed back together and separated with a blinding flash of light.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The nothingness Arla sank into suddenly felt like a concrete floor. Everything was dark and slightly damp. She took in a deep breath and gagged immediately; it smelled extremely bad in whatever she was in, as if rotten eggs and livestock gave birth to a smell that seemed to make the olfactory senses go on strike immediately. 'Wait a minute,' she thought, becoming increasingly suspicious. She patted herself all over and found that her entire being was covered in armor except for her head. She couldn't see it, but she knew that her hair was an absolute mess. Stargazer sent a response immediately. 'Considering your revival, I don't think that your hair is that messed up. Also, that should be the least of your worries.'

"I'm alive!" Arla exclaimed.

"That you are," a voice said in the darkness. Two yellow lights appeared only a couple feet in front of her. They were extremely obvious in the pitch black of the room they were in. "And while you revel in that, let me explain what's happening.

"You are currently in one of the Fallen's underground tunnels that allows them quick travel between various places on Earth. They've input some sort of device that renders this entire complex invisible to radars, reconnaissance…basically everything that isn't looking at it with your own eyes. We've got two objectives: First, we need to get comms back online, so finding the room in charge of the device is key. Second and only if its feasible, we need to collapse these tunnels connecting the Fallen to the City otherwise they can exit and wreak havoc at any time they feel like…"

A small blue light appeared and hovered near the yellow lights. "You do realize that all of that is easier said than done right? And when exactly did you concoct this plan?"

"About five minutes ago," it said confidently. That certainly filled Arla with _plenty_ of confidence. Halfway plans are exactly how you win wars.

"That's hardly a concept. There has to be several flaws with your plan," the smaller light commented.

"Got anything better? You've got thirty seconds."

"Hold up a minute! That's even less time than you got!"

Arla interrupted. "Could you two please stop arguing? You sound like a Guardian and Ghost I used to know. Who are you anyways?"

Without hesitation, the yellow lights responded, "Erebus. My name is Erebus."

The blue light took a second or two, leaving Arla suspicious. "My name is Nyx," it eventually answered.

"That's not what I meant. I meant: _who_ are you? Are you alive? There are a million questions I could ask you, but I could not care less about your names."

"Feisty this one," the blue light said.

"We've been watching you…" Erebus began.

'That's not creepy at all,' Arla thought.

"...for the last couple of days. Heard that by the way. Technically we weren't allowed to intervene with any sort of activity, but the comms jam down here presented the perfect opportunity for us to break our silence. We're guardians if you will."

"Knock it off with the wordplay!" Nyx scolded. "Nobody appreciates it."

"You're darn right nobody appreciates it. Can we get back to the plan? I only have a little bit left to go."

"Proceed," Arla relented, giving up on her curiosity.

"So, we collapse the tunnels plain and simple. Generally speaking, there's an emergency 'hide-the-evidence' button in these types of Fallen establishments, but I don't think this one is rigged to blow everything to smithereens. Then again, I have been wrong before...Either way, it's likely guarded by a battalion of Fallen with little cover and little room for error on our part. This battalion is likely led by a Servitor in charge of maintaining this district of tunnels. When we reach it, the Servitor will either trigger that failsafe immediately, then keep us from exiting in time or kill us and then evacuate the tunnels and begin digging new ones."

"So we run the risk of dying either way?" Arla inquired.

"Don't we always," Erebus laughed. "It keeps life...interesting."

"Or results in the lack thereof," Nyx added.

"Well, we're in this situation right now, and I don't think those chutes go back up," Arla stated before the argument even started. She did _not_ want to play referee until she got out of here. "So quick question: How do we know where we're going? You two have a map?"

Nyx and Erebus, judging by their lights, looked at each other. Erebus turned back around and looked at Arla. "Err no. That's why we're going to find a control room or emergency console that probably has another servitor guarding it, so we'll need to be quiet and take it out before we hack the systems or it puts us permanently underground." Silence pervaded for several awkward seconds. "So who's ready to kick some Fallen butt?"

"Anything to get me out of here. Let's get moving," Arla said with some authority. Without her asking, Stargazer spawned a repaired version of her helmet with improved night vision. Everything was still painted green, but she could at least see her surroundings.

The tunnel was barren except for footprints from Fallen footsoldiers. Larger prints indicated the presence of Walkers moving through the tunnels at one point or another. She looked at Erebus and Nyx. Their forms directly disregarded the night vision's color boundary as there eyes were still the yellow and blue they were without the helmet. Erebus had a humanoid form with definite arms, legs, and a torso, but there was a wispy, ghost-like quality to it. Nyx had a similar quality to himself but was nothing but a slightly misshapen dot, almost shaped like a Ghost but there was just something different about its form that made it seem different. Going back to Erebus, there was something different about him as well. His wispy form seemed to have a sort of white outline to it. This outline was far from weak; it was extremely definite but could not contain the wispy tendrils of black that extended off of his body.

Erebus reached at his back and drew something equally as shadowed but looked like a scout rifle. Arla drew her own hand cannon and followed him down the wide tunnel.

Nothing happened for the first half hour of walking. They were completely silent as they looked for a control room. Then they saw it, about five feet in front of them, a small flash of light that could've belonged to some sort of device. The group located the door and took cover on the adjacent walls, Arla on the right and Erebus on the left.

He held up a shadowy hand with three fingers raised. "On the count of three," he whispered. "We bust in there and clear the room. Arla, I want you to slide this door ever so slightly and toss in a grenade in. What are you class wise? Bladedancer or Gunslinger?"

Arla flashed the golden hand cannon placed in a holster strapped to her waist. It wasn't quite charged yet but was very close. She prepped an incendiary grenade in her left hand and prepared to activate it. Erebus nodded and counted down on his fingers 3...2...1...Arla slid the door just far enough to fit the grenade through. Just as she threw the grenade, the door forcefully moved to shut itself. The grenade glowed a bright yellow-orange and bounced back at the group. "Crap!" Arla shouted as she sprinted away from the grenade and the door. The grenade's light grew in intensity and exploded with a deafening _BOOM!_ and harsh light. The _BOOM_ echoed off the walls and traveled down the tunnel in both directions. There was no doubt in Arla's mind that there was a horde of Fallen moving their way from the left and right.

She ran back to the door. "Well, that's not quiet at all. Oh shoot!" the door suddenly opened and the servitor they sought floated out. It's spherical form moved right past them and looked about the area. Arla motioned them into the room to get the data and tapped her helmet. "I've got a plan," she whispered.

Crouched, she moved silently toward the Servitor. It looked left and right for the source of the explosion that it detected, but it did not detect the Huntress stalking it from behind. Arla put her gun in its holster and pulled out the close-quarters knife. She leapt on top of the seritor, and it immediately tried to spin her off. It circled left and right as Arla barely held on to its largely smooth surface. Somehow, despite being spun relentless, she stabbed her knife into its eye. It retaliated by increasing the speed of its spins. Arla gripped her knife harder but felt her feet beginning to lift into the air.

She couldn't hold on any longer. Arla let go of the knife and got flung several feet in the air and at least twelve feet away. The impact with the floor centered directly on her left shoulder and rolled her several feet after the first impact. Arla pushed herself onto her feet and broke into a determined sprint towards the Servitor. She snatched the Golden Gun out of its holster.

At first touch, it ignited with light and fire. The fire then spread to Arla's armor, but she felt none of it. Light surged throughout her entire being, and her anger burned with the flames. She fired once at the Servitor. The bright yellow shot streaked towards its target leaving a thin trail of light, striking it above the center and to the right. Some of its armor shattered on impact and dropped to the ground. She fired again, much closer this time, and took out the bottom center of its armor. At this point, Arla was only a few feet away from the floating eye. She lunged forward, grabbing her knife out of the Servitor and replaced it with the last shot in the Golden Gun. The shot tore straight through the eye and dissipated into the wall. The servitor's parts inside sparked furiously for several seconds before falling to the ground, the purple ring around the center of its eye just as dark as their surroundings.

Pleased with the outcome, Arla spun the Golden Gun on her finger a couple of times and placed it in the holster. She confidently proceeded into the control room that Erebus and Nyx were supposed to have entered.

The door opened before she entered and Erebus stood at the door. In his hand, he held some sort of cone-shaped device. "Ah, good. You dealt with it," he said pleased. "I've got the map right here."

He made a move to come outside the door. Arla held up a hand. "I don't think that's a bright idea. Let's study the map in here because that grenade set off a horde of Fallen rushing to our position."

Gesturing to the broken electrical equipment in the center of the tunnel, Erebus replied, "I don't think that helps."

"That being there serves two purposes. First, it shows that we killed a Servitor and will do the same to them. Second, it shows that we are likely in this room…"

"Which leaves us sitting ducks," Nyx said from across the room.

"That is true," Arla began. "But at least we're sitting ducks with cover. Out there, there is none. We'd be taking shot after shot and running the risk of being killed."

The two shadows stopped to think this over. Erebus placed the device in the center of the room. A gridded holomap each tunnel and those that branched out from the main ones. They seemed to be laid out in a square but the central area was actually on an outer corner rather than the direct center. They group currently stood just past one of the adjacent corners. If they went the opposite way they did, they would have found the central room within 15 minutes.

"So essentially, we went the opposite way we should have?" Arla observed.

"Seems to be that way," Nyx replied.

Arla folded her arms. "Well, I don't think we have any other choice. We need to get out of here."

Erebus stepped in. "We NEED to get these tunnels collapsed before they get a raiding party big enough to take down the City. The size of these tunnels speaks volumes about how long they've been building these. I'm amazed they haven't attacked from underground yet, or collapsed the City from beneath."

"I agree," Arla replied, mulling over Erebus' words. "The Fallen have attacked us without warning. What could be holding them back?"

"The Traveler maybe?"

"But that's their sworn enemy. They're minions of the Darkness. Their sole objective to life is to collapse all that the Light has built."

"Could it be that they are simply reclaiming what was once theirs?" Erebus suggested.

"Absurd!" Arla exclaimed.

Nyx floated over to Erebus. "Geez. She's stubborn," he whispered.

"She _is _an Awoken." Erebus turned to Arla.

"HEY!" Arla yelled indignantly. "I heard that."

"It is the truth," Nyx added. "Your people are very proud of their accomplishments and their abilities. Considering your closeness to the Queen…"

"I have no relation to her regime. I served a different queen before becoming a Guardian. Besides, this is not something we should be discussing right now. There are FALLEN surrounding us. Some of us living don't feel like dying today or anytime soon."

"I agree with you on that one, but what makes you so sure that we're not alive?"

"You're shadows. Ghosts probably."

"Point taken. Let's get moving."

Arla picked up the map device, but Erebus plucked it out of her hand and put it in his own shadowy pocket. Arla followed them down the tunnel. Nothing besides her movement disturbed the uncomfortable silence in the tunnel. The only shadow that looked like it was walking was Erebus, but despite his feet moving, he left no prints or evidence of having walked there at all.

Several minutes passed with relative quiet besides the splash of Arla's footsteps as she stepped into a shadow puddle of water that somehow leaked from the soil above. Once again there was that feeling that she was being watched. Though this time she knew it wasn't the shadows that hovered (?) in front of her. Arla trotted up to Erebus and opened her mouth to speak.

"I know," he said before she could say a word. "I feel it too. It's the Fallen. They've set up some sort of trap that'll be sprung any second now."

They broke into a steady jog just as the door to the main control room was in view. Unexpectedly, the sound of an explosion and rocks smashing against each other echoed down the tunnel. The group stopped momentarily and looked back. An avalanche of rocks was coming their way aided by massive explosions coming from the walls. Arla immediately broke into a sprint towards the central control room followed by Erebus and Nyx.

"They've activated the failsafe! Arla, how long did it take you to kill the Servitor?" Nyx asked as they ran towards the door. It was about 300 yards away.

"About 30 seconds give or take. I stabbed it with my knife but got flung off, but I retaliated with the Golden Gun and destroyed it."

"It relayed the signal," Nyx concluded while Arla's heart sunk. She messed up royally. "That moment when it flung you off was all it needed to tell the main Servitor. That's why we've felt like we're being watched, and now we need to get inside that control room before…"

Her night vision suddenly exploded with bright green as an explosion boomed right in front of her. The shockwave threw her onto her back and tossed her weapon out of her hand. Her head whipped backward with the force of the blast and colliding violently with the hard ground.

"Crap!" Erebus exclaimed, picking himself off the ground just like Arla.

But Arla couldn't. Everything was swirling and making her feel woozy. Her head exploded with a pain that seemed to burn everything about her consciousness and being. Through the pain, she managed to get to her hands and knees and try to stand up. She could hear the rocks, her ultimate death crashing closer and closer to her position. Her arms and legs rebelled against her and her balance refused to allow her to go past being on all fours. Her vision was nothing but a swirl of confused colors trying to sort themselves.

Very distantly, she could hear Nyx shout, "You're gonna have to."

Then there was a _BOOM_ next to Arla, and she felt herself lift off the ground and fly through the air. She shut off her night vision and watched the darkness pass by instead of a swirl of colors. Strong hands suddenly grabbed her around the stomach and her vision immediately flashed from purple to a blinding white with an audible '_WHOOSH!' _accompanying it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Everything stopped when the light subsided. The hands released her as quickly as they grabbed her as she skidded across something that felt much softer than the presumably concrete floor of the tunnel. Realizing she had closed her eyes, Arla opened them and daylight flooded into her helmet. She could see the jagged edges of broken smartglass along with frozen remnants of her HUD. Her vision continued to spin in a nauseating way, but a small prick followed by a tingling sensation steadily calmed it and many of the other symptoms of her moderate concussion over the course of several minutes as she lay on the ground.

Curious faces suddenly crowded her vision. The cacophony of voices amounted to: "Are you ok miss?" "How'd you get here?" "What's your name? Hey, hey! Look at me. Answer the question!" Arla couldn't answer all these questions and couldn't take the incoming claustrophobia. She stirred a little bit and everyone backed off except for a hand at her back helping her sit up.

Arla reached at her neck and took off the broken helmet, putting it in her lap. She rubbed her eyes and looked around at her surroundings. She sat smack dab in the middle of Traveler's Watch, the exact center of the City, while a ring of only a few people surrounded her trying to figure out what just happened. A second and much larger ring of civilians varying in age, species, and occupation looked on from afar. Her armor was blackened with soot from the blast, but she didn't care in the slightest.

She looked around her for any sign of Erebus and Nyx, but there was none. A commanding voice boomed from behind her. "Hey! Get away from her!" It was a distant voice, Arla still heard the dull clank of Titan armor. "I'm a doctor!" one of the civilians around her cried.

The Titan continued moving forward but said, "Then you stay. Everyone else CLEAR OUT!" Suddenly, three booms echoed in rapid succession, indicating the Titan shot into the air. Without needing any further prompting, everyone besides the supposed doctor ran back to the flinching outer circle.

The doctor, an Awoken with black hair pushed to one side and glowing orange eyes, held up a flashlight and a finger. "Follow the finger," he said with a flowing voice. He moved the finger from side to side and quietly chuckled. "You're needed in the Reef as soon as possible Guardian." The voice turned cold and mocking at the end of the sentence.

The Titan's footsteps stopped, and she stopped in front of Arla. "What's the news doc?" the Titan asked.

The Awoken doctor rose and looked at the Titan. "She's suffering from a concussion. I don't know its severity but she's going to be extremely disoriented when the medicine wears off."

"You got it. Miss, I'm going to help you up. Can you walk?" The Titan's strong hands picked her up gently under the arms. Just as she was being lifted, Arla grabbed the helmet and clutched it in her left hand. Once on her feet, she staggered some but was able to recover. She turned to look for the doctor, but he was gone. There was something familiar about him. She'd seen that face somewhere before, probably in a file she read. The name Uldren came to mind.

Looking at the helmet, Arla pushed the remnants of the helmet's smartglass. 'I can get another,' she thought as she did this. She moved towards the outer ring of people with the Titan following only a foot behind her. Arla spied a child no older than 10, his mother's arms draped around him as she approached, with bright eyes staring at her in admiration and wonder. The Titan grabbed her shoulder, "Tower's this way Guardian," she said concerned. "Are you sure you can walk?"

"Yes," Arla deflected. "I need to do something first. Stargazer, sever the connection to the helmet."

"Are you certain you want to do this?" Stargazer asked in astonishment.

"I can get another one. I think there's some atonement to be made for the rubble incident."

"As you wish," Stargazer relented. A few seconds later, "It's done," she relayed.

The section of the circle backed up the closer Arla approached. Noticing she meant no harm, the group stopped backing up. Arms suddenly extended to touch her and shake her hand.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could the the Titan trying to stem back her own flock of people seeking to be noticed. Arla graciously accepted the hands and shook all the ones she could as she made her way to the boy. She stopped in front of him and knelt down. Respectfully, the crowd stopped and gave her some space, but they stayed within earshot and studied every movement she made.

Arla slowly edged her way to the boy until he moved out of his mother's grasp and stood less than a foot from her. The boy's hair was brown and extremely messy but there was a curious organization to it that confounded her. "What's your name?" she asked earnestly.

The kid was speechless. His face said it all: he couldn't believe that she stopped right in front of him, and _spoke to him_. "J-John," he stammered with as much amazement in his voice as his face suggested.

"John," she said. "That's a wonderful name. It's got a nice ring to it wouldn't you say?"

"I-I guess it does." He stared into Arla's eyes for several seconds as if he suddenly realized something for himself. "Are y-you a Guardian?"

Arla gave a small chuckle. "Yes." She couldn't stop smiling.

"Where's your little floater thingy? I've seen many Guardians walking around with those things."

Arla saw Stargazer appear just above the boy's shoulder. "You mean my Ghost Stargazer? She's on your shoulder."

The boy's eyes turned as wide as table saucers as he looked to his right and saw a purple and black Ghost hovering only a few inches from his face. "Hello John," Stargazer said politely. She moved from his shoulder to his outstretched hand.

"Wow!" he exclaimed with excitement. "It's like I'm a Guardian!"

He put his arm down after it apparently got tired, and Stargazer relocated to Arla's shoulder. Arla put the helmet in both of her hands. "Every Guardian has a duty to uphold: protect the City and all those who live in it. Can I trust you protect the City?"

His voice gained a little more confidence. "Yes, I can do whatever is needed."

Arla laughed again and beamed. "Well to do that, you'll need a helmet to protect that bright mind of yours." She placed the helmet on his head. It was extremely loose, but that allowed her to see the a smile she never thought was possible on someone's face. "Now go protect our City," she said.

"I will," John said without hesitation. Without warning, he rushed forward and hugged her. "You protect it too."

Accepting the embrace, Arla said, "You can bet I will." She broke the embrace and stood up. Before she moved back to the Titan, Arla saw three lights glowing in an alleyway, two yellow and one blue.

Curious, she gently pushed her way through the remaining crowd. Something was pulling her towards the lights in the shadow of the alley, but she stopped just in front of the line between the light and the shadow. The crowd turned around to see what Arla was doing, no doubt they could see the lights as well.

"There's a reason you could revive me in that tunnel," Arla stated flatly. "There's a reason we worked so well together back there as well. But most of all, there's a reason you saved me just as it all collapsed."

"I'm sorry," Erebus replied. "We're only shadows and nothing more. Sometimes, you just have to forget the dead."

Arla smiled. "You're supposed to remember the dead. Besides, these shadows just so happen to be in the place with the highest concentration of the Traveler's light. Very tangible shadows I might add." Without any further hesitation, Arla grabbed Erebus' hand and yanked him out of the alley. His shadowy form stumbled forward before settling its balance. Nyx floated by reluctantly.

Small yellow-gold specks began to appear in the air, only a few at first but quickly grew in number. They flocked to the shadowy forms and surrounded them in a swirling vortex of light.

"Erebus," Arla declared as the lights began to disappear, "you're a…"

The words stopped there. Her mind overloaded and shock overtook everything. Tears streamed down her face. There was no doubting who was in front of her but she couldn't move despite her best efforts. Arla placed a hand over her mouth and just stared for several moments. The crowd looked equally astonished at the transformation that took place right in front of their eyes. John, still wearing the ill-fitting helmet, bounded to the front of the crowd.

Arla felt the connection pull her closer and closer. She overcame the initial shock and sprinted forward into the ex-Erebus. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could, vowing that she would never let him disappear again.


	26. Independent Agendas

Part 3

Respawn

Chapter 26

Independent Agendas

**1 Week later**

**Reef, Asteroid Belt**

**Fireteam Beta 8: Maximus, Arla**

**Voidwalker Maximus**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The ship lurched sharply as it exited the FTL Warp. The sudden deceleration tested the restraints that strapped me in the seat but held their ground. The Reef's Asteroids dotted the viewport backed by a pink-purple light. Various pieces of destroyed ships floated in the nearby space, but I was able to keep my distance from them. "Alright Arla," I said, flipping on the comms. "Where's this outpost we're meeting them at?"

Arla's face popped up on the bottom right corner of the screen. "I'm just following the coordinates. Looks like we'll arrive in about 20-30 minutes barring no mishaps."

I looked at the broken ships that surrounded my own and then at the cyan engines of a purple ship designed strikingly similar to ancient fighter jets (just much bigger). "I don't know. It looks like there was one heck of a fight here recently. According to the database, these ships are a combination of Awoken and Fallen." I swerved around more debris and gave Starco the controls. I stood up out of the chair and copied the comms onto my personal channel. Arla's face looked slightly downward when something on her instrument panel. Seizing the opportunity, I muted my mic for a second. "Starco, speed up and bring the ship next to Arla's would you? The, um, signal's having some trouble. I can't hear Arla."

"What do you mean? The signal's just fine, and she's not saying anything. " he countered.

"Just do it, or I'll do it myself."

He didn't respond, but I felt the engines increase their power and saw the distance between us and Arla steadily decrease until we were just behind her. I moved back to the rest area in the back of the ship and pulled the blue and silver armored robe on as well as my gauntlets and gloves. Once they were securely on, I blinked out of the ship and into Arla's. During the split second of quasi-teleportation, I felt the freezing cold of space as I passed from ship to ship.

I reappeared just a few feet behind Arla's pilot chair. I quickly tapped her shoulder and blinked back to my ship just in front of my seat. I sat back in my chair as Arla turned around and unmuted my mic. "Hello? Who's there?" she asked an empty ship. Realizing she'd been tricked, she looked directly into the camera feed. If looks could kill. Starco stifled a laugh as he realized what I did and disregarded the obvious danger I faced. "Maximus! Just because you can blink now does NOT mean you can just appear out of nowhere and prank people. Besides…" I saw the golden gun, however small a piece I could see, disappear. Arla closed her eyes and disappeared in a bright flash. The pilot's chair spun around and Arla glowered at me in the seat with fiery eyes bottling anger as well as concern. "We're here to get into the Black Garden, not to play jokes. I swear, you've changed since you've reappeared." She blinked back into her ship and settled back in her chair.

She was right. I too had noticed a change in how I operated, and, once again, the Traveler had something to do with it. When I died at the armory, I felt like I was standing in a void-like tunnel that seemed to continue forever in every direction except ahead of me. The area ahead of me had a dim light slicing through the ominous darkness that surrounded me, but no matter how long and far I thought I walked toward it, I never actually progressed. It seemed like something kept me tethered to the spot I was in for what seemed like forever. Then the light suddenly rushed my direction without any warning but went completely dark just as it came into an arm's length away.

I sat in that darkness for a much shorter time when the limitless expanse exploded into light once again. I caught a brief glimpse of the Traveler before I felt myself sucked into a tube and transformed into the shadowy figure Erebus while Starco became Nyx. From what Starco explained shortly after this change, I was "revived" per se by the Traveler when Arla tossed what she presumed to be a dead Starco directly into the Traveler's concentrated aura field. However, it was only a partial revival. We were only shadows of our former selves and were under orders from the Traveler not to intervene with mortal affairs for reasons still unknown to me. After our tunnel fiasco and Arla pulling me into the daylight, the Traveler shot me with its light again and was able to restore not only me but Starco too. I'll take life over sitting in limitless solitude for eternity, but I had just started pondering whether my existence could have been more peace-bearing instead of warlike.

This rebirth I was given didn't seem to change my OS, but there were changes to something more advanced than the soft- and hardware that make me. The beginnings of a soul? I don't know. That seemed a bit far fetched, but the Traveler has done some strange things to me (why only me?). Honestly, I felt different. I felt…"Human." The sentience that all Exo gained as a result of that long-forgotten war seemed to expand. I now have a little more understanding of emotions, most notably humor, and tried to express them a little more, but it seems that facial expression helps convey them more effectively, something an Exo faceplate cannot support. This humor isn't much, pranks and puns, but I think I can adapt to the things Awoken and Humans consider "funny," but based on my ongoing analysis, it's crude humor they look for. Mostly, jokes pertaining to their anatomy or obese and/or unintelligent maternal figures. Again, I don't understand it, but I guess if I looked or acted as strange the two races (really two different species at this point), I would make jokes about it too. From what I've heard, this sort of growth is a common among Exo Guardians, not sure about civilian Exo. One notable example is the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6. Arla generally describes him as friendly and funny whenever he's giving orders, especially black ops that he keeps hidden from Zavala and Ikora. That's not exactly the sort of thing you want to do in a leadership position, but if I had a hidden cache of goods in the Cosmodrome, I would probably be a little shrewd in my dealings as well. I stopped the thoughts there before I got too far off on a tangent and focused on the purple glow, space debris, and asteroids in front of me.

"You think that this battle is still going on in another sector?" Arla asked.

"I don't know," I responded. "This debris looks relatively new, and thermal is showing some residual heat signatures. No signs of any capital ships though."

"It's best we don't get off course now," she suggested. "We're just about to enter Awoken space."

I glanced at the radar again. There was an abnormally sized blip just coming into the upper right hand part of the circle. "Hold up Arla, I've got something big on the radar. Looks to be a flagship or something similar."

"I'm seeing it too," Arla replied. I scanned the ship with some promising results. "It's barely functional but as far as I can tell, there's no Fallen around it. Want to check it out?"

"I thought you just said we shouldn't deviate from our course."

Arla sat silent for several seconds. "Plans change," she declared and swerved her ship in the general direction of the large ship. She closed the comms channel, and I got up from the pilot's chair.

"Starco, take the stick would you?" The Ghost nodded in response and transferred the controls to himself. I walked to the back of the ship and opened the cabinet with my armaments inside. I grabbed the red hand cannon as well as a fusion rifle I recently received called Telesto. That shadowy figure from a few months ago sent a package for some odd reason, but I wasn't about to complain about a new weapon although I hadn't tried it out yet. I loaded my belt pockets with munition caps and batteries and moved back to the pilot's chair.

Starco kept the main control while I stared at the massive ship in front of me. The radar did absolutely nothing to indicate the scale of the ship in front of us, but I could only imagine what it once looked like. Now, it floats in tatters, armor shredded all around it, and it was separated into three chunks of metal hovering in the near-absolute zero of space.

"I scanned for signs of life on the central piece of debris," Starco told me. "We've got around a two dozen registered life signatures in two pods of six, one of seven, and one of five. All but one of five are not moving for the moment."

"What kind of life did you scan for?" I asked.

"It was a very general search. Couldn't get a good outline of them with all the radiation interference from the exposed reactor core."

"Reactor core? You mean to say that this thing could blow at any second?"

"In a rather large nutshell, yes. I'm not very good at math, but my calculations say that it's about an hour from leaking and two hours from a total meltdown. My question is: why didn't they send out a distress beacon. The ship's picking up nothing to or from the ship."

I sighed. This was not ideal. The high amounts of radiation caused by the fusion and fission within the reactor core could give Arla radiation poisoning within minutes, and while there is a cure in the medical kits on a ship, they're not exactly fun to use. On that same note, radiation exposure would not benefit me either, my systems would start going haywire within a few minutes. Those bombs that gave us Exo our sentience came with an inexplicable and strange side effect: Radiation, especially in high amounts, was like a drug. At first, the systems would absorb the radiation and go into a type of overdrive that would cause me to move and think faster as well as increase my processing speed. You could think of it as a sort of high. However, it corrupts the fluids running through me, decomposing them into unstable isotopes with extremely short half-lives. Judging by the readouts from the ship's computer, I could last about a half hour before I would collapse and be completely dead ten minutes later.

I reopened the comms channel with Arla. I didn't want to break the news to her, but it needed to be said. "We can't do this," I stated flatly.

"What?!" Arla yelled indignantly.

"Check the energy readouts coming from the ship." Her eyes flickered to a screen on her left. "The gamma is too high for you and me, and I'm guessing our armor was not designed to handle high amounts of radiation."

"But there are people in there!" Arla screamed. "We can't just leave them there!"

"We don't know if those are Awoken or Fallen. There are Fallen boarding craft dotting that ship." The life signs readout had dropped by a third. The one mobile group had stopped and were lying down for the most part . "The radiation is going to kill them any minute now. We have no choice."

"No," Arla and Starco interjected at the exact same time.

"You're not suggesting what I think you are?" Arla exclaimed in disbelief.

With the condition they were likely in, it would be a mercy kill. Their deaths would be painless compared to the agony they must feel currently. They would hear an explosion, feel the ship rock, possibly see a wall of fire (but that was unlikely as they were likely half to completely unconscious by now), and then nothing. Slowly dying by radiation poisoning is not exactly a peaceful way to go. A semi-painless death is what the Awoken soldiers deserved in the least given their current situation.

"It would be a more peaceful way to go than what they're being given right now!" I reasoned. "It's a mercy kill. If you were them, you'd be asking for the end to come too."

"No!" Arla denied ferociously. "I'd be fighting till my last breath to get into an escape pod and get out of that ship."

"You wouldn't be able to move. You'd be too weak to do anything besides count the hairs coming off your head and vomiting as you groan in agony!"

The Huntress completely ignored what I said. She put on her helmet and closed the comms link just as tears of fury began welling up in her eyes. Her ship's engines suddenly turned from cyan to almost white as she shot forward with amazing acceleration.

"Dangit Arla!" I shouted to myself. I grabbed the controls and pushed the accelerator all the way forward. The engines whined for a second, but then exploded with sound and an acceleration that shoved me into the back of my seat and seemed to loosen the restraints.

I rocketed forward with some complaining from the engines (the coolant was running low), but there was no way I was going to allow Arla to kill herself saving doomed souls aboard that ship. However, there was also no way I was going to catch up to her in time. There was no doubt I was gaining, but at the current rate, I couldn't get in front of her and stop her before the radiation would leak through the hull and start poisoning us before we ever got close to the ailing ship.

"Arla! This is suicide!" I yelled as I popped open another comms channel. She immediately closed it and denied any further attempt. I turned to Starco who was keeping the ship steady under the extreme acceleration. "Can this thing go any faster? She's going to kill herself."

Starco looked at me for a moment before shifting back to the growing ship swiftly moving from the background to the foreground. "You ever think that she's going through some things at the moment?"

"Answer the question!" I yelled.

"Yes!" Starco yelled back. "We need to shut off the limiter on the control panels in the back, but that's unnecessarily dangerous. You could wind up killing yourself and Arla. That limiter is the only thing keeping the engines from tearing themselves apart and auto-activating the warp drive."

"Do you want to explain Arla's death to Lee?"

"I'm an AI; I'll tell him what happened honestly."

"And I'm an Exo. What difference does it make? We need to do something now!"

Several crucial seconds passed by as I waited for Starco's rebuttal, but he kept his eye squarely on the space in front of him. I came up with a plane; it was extremely risky, but it was either that or watch Arla die, and that was not going to happen today if I had anything to do with it.

I secured my helmet and went to the very back of the ship. Starco turned around. "What are you doing?" he inquired, but I returned the silent treatment he gave me. Arla's ship was just over 200m away, and I could make out a large portion of the individual windows and viewports on the ship. We were close, too close.

"On my mark, flip the ship and get out of here," I commanded sternly.

"What are you doing?!" Starco asserted.

"Something," I responded simply and broke into a sprint towards the front of the ship. I imagined the cockpit of Arla's ship and threw my arms out just as I was about to collide with the pilot's chair and jumped just as I disappeared.

In short, I missed Arla's ship. I blinked a few meters in front of it and low enough that she could not have possibly seen me except as a possible blip on her radar, but granted her being blind with rage I should be fine.

I immediately threw my hands up to latch onto her ship. I only had a few tenths of a second before it hit me, but I got a good grip. If by good, you mean that I struggled until I latched on just before the engines.

I had to work quickly if I didn't want to freeze completely before I rescued Arla. I clamored on the bottoms of the wings and pulled myself on the top of her craft. Keeping a firm grip on the ship, I moved forward to the engines. Once there, I tried stomping in the exhausts to no avail. I grabbed the hand cannon and started shooting them. The gun was completely silent as the bullets cut through the small hole in the ship's shields.

There was no explosion, but there was a significant decrease in output as I noticed the acceleration basically cease on the spot. However, the ship was still moving at an incredible speed and was not going to slow down before we hit the ship. The radiation field was already beginning to affect my systems, and while it did provide me with a buzz of energy, I knew that it would ultimately kill me. I quickly blinked inside the ship and made a move for Arla.

She blinked out of the way just as I reached for her and left me grasping at air. I pushed myself off the seat and spun around quickly, but Arla's fist struck me out of nowhere mid-turn. The blow knocked me back into the chair, but I bounced off and blocked the next blow. There was a sort of fire in her eyes that I'd never seen; clearly, she was not thinking straight.

She came at me with another flurry of blows, but they were extremely sloppy and easily sidestepped. Arla stumbled forward clumsily into the chair and threw forward a leg aimed directly at my chest. I caught the leg at the boot, but fell for her trap. As soon as I caught the boot, she launched herself into the air and planted her free foot onto my helmeted face, pushed off, and twisted her way back onto the ground. I stumbled backward blindly until my feet came out from under me and left me on the ground.

Arla wasted no time pinning me to the ground, but she fell for _my_ unplanned trap. As soon as she touched me, I yelled, "Starco, Transmat now!" In an instant, our surroundings melted away and reappeared as the interior of my ship. Bewildered, Arla dropped her guard. I quickly moved her off of me and sat her down in a fold up chair on the wall. As if all the energy had drained out of her, she didn't fight as I nudged her into the plush seat. Wordlessly, she watched as her ship, radiation knocking out the autopilot, careened directly into an open portion of the reactor core. Explosions ripped through every part of the ship, shattering it into jagged pieces of metal spiraling away in all directions. She didn't react in the slightest. Instead, Arla just stared out into the infinite reaches of space.

Starco flipped the ship and accelerated in the opposite direction we were traveling. It took several seconds, but eventually we got moving in the right direction. However, we weren't moving fast enough. The incoming shock wave from the blast crept closer with every millisecond that passed. I heard the warp drive engage and felt the ship lurch and shake into the sudden acceleration. I stumbled back a little bit into a nearby wall, but managed to trudge back into the pilot's seat where Starco waited.

"_That _was NOT smart," he stated accusingly.

I shrugged it off. "It worked didn't it?"

"It doesn't matter if it worked. Fact is, you just destroyed Arla's ship."

I glanced at Arla in the seat. She was sound asleep with serenity painted on her face. I turned back to Starco and the hues of warp space. "Correction, _she _destroyed her ship. I saved her from jumping right into an unstable ship just asking to kill her in minutes."

"You killed anyone aboard that ship."

"Did you see how many Fallen boarding craft there were? The radiation alone would have killed them, and the Fallen would have hastened the process before dying themselves if they didn't leave the ship in time. You said it yourself; that ship was going to blow up anyway. Besides, I the autopilot should have engaged and steered it out of there."

"Radiation makes it run much slower than you'd care to imagine. Computers and OS have gotten better, but that still leaves them with their flaws."

I decided to drop the subject. "Either way, it's over. Where'd you send us to?"

"The Tower. Where else?"

I pointed to the Nav Computer, also known as the Director according to Starco. "Then why does it say we're going to Mars?"

"I know for certain that I input the coordinates correctly…"

"Apparently not. We're thirty seconds from our destination. Can we exit warp and then re-enter with the correct coordinates?"

"Not really. Generally, it takes about 30-45 minutes for the entire wind down sequence to complete and be ready for another use."

"I guess we could just use the time for Arla to sleep. Life's been pretty rough for her the last couple of weeks, and we certainly have not helped." The ship sharply decelerated.

"YOU have not helped. I've done nothing."

We were both beginning to yell without regard to Arla sleeping nearby. "This is NOT a conversation we should be having right now. We have thirty minutes before we can do anything that will be of use to anybody."

Arla's voice suddenly rang out and topped all of ours. "Boys! Stop arguing. Do I look like a referee?" I never noticed that she woke up.

Starco and I looked at each other for several long and awkward seconds. I swung around the pilot's chair and changed my demeanor. "You're not going to attack me again are you?" I asked.

"No," she replied regretfully. "I don't know what happened. It was almost as if I wasn't in control…"

Starco consoled her. "There's no need to explain yourself. We understand."

"Says you!" I blurted out. "What were you trying to prove? That death does not apply to you? I understand that we need to save as many lives as possible, but there's a fine line between hope for a good outcome and suicide."

"I know!" she shouted full of rage, but not the same kind that drove her to violence against me. It was more of a remorseful anger, like that you'd see in two siblings arguing. Her voice grew quieter. "I know." There was a long pause. "These past couple of weeks have been hard on me. I...I snapped. I didn't mean any of what happened."

I understood her predicament, at least as far as an Exo could comprehend. She witnessed the death of a good friend and an ally all within a couple days of each other. Essentially, she'd gone through an emotional rollercoaster I wouldn't fancy in anybody's case. I had no doubt that there were Awoken, whom she had no allegiance to and nothing to gain from saving them, on that ship we could've saved, but I also knew that there were Fallen on that ship. This sheer number of landing craft connected was a testament to just how many Fallen came to raid it. I decided it wasn't smart to keep dwelling on the past. "Are you fine now? Fine as in it won't happen again?" I asked swallowing the anger I felt building.

She stared at me for a second. "I'm fine. Let's get to the Reef."

"Well, before we get to do that," Starco piped up. "We need to let the engines cool off."

Arla waved a hand in a dismissive manner. "I know a shortcut," she said with a sudden and unexpected change of tone. She stood up and moved towards the control panel by the door to the engine room. "Is there anything loose in the engine room that could catastrophically screw us up?"

I looked at Starco, and he looked back at me. "I don't think so," Starco stated.

"Alright then," Arla said as she put on her helmet and proceeded through the door. The door shut tight behind her and several minutes passed in total silence until red alarms blared throughout the ship.

A warning took over the ship's HUD indicating that the ship's engine panels had been opened and the area had depressurized almost immediately after being exposed to empty space. At the same time, I pulled up the remote maintenance screen and pulled up the engines. There was a schematic of the entire ship with various colors showing the various temperatures around the ship. The main cockpit was a dark green at 25.6 degrees Celsius whereas the engines that were once at around 1540 degrees were now well below 250 and were ready to be used again according to the status message once I tapped on each engine. The engine panels closed swiftly and silently and Arla repressurized the engine area before walking back into the cockpit.

She threw off her helmet and let her Ghost store it. "To the Reef!" Arla declared victoriously.

I started tapping at a few screens and started the warp drive. Within the minute, the ship accelerated sharply and the bright hues of warp space cloaked the ship.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The Vestian Outpost was a decently sized station that seemed to serve as a crossroads and refueling station for the Awoken's military forces. Amongst the debris and asteroids common to the Reef, there was a large hangar area technically bottomless, but that was only determined by the artificial gravity within. There was a large pinkish purple ship with some sort of insignia that looked like a sort of crown but also teeth. What seemed to be hundreds of Awoken soldiers dressed in the same pink-purple and black lined the docking stations. Arla moved from the seat and leaned forward on the pilot's chair as I guided my ship in. "Yup, that's definitely the Queen. Maybe they'll lend us some troops to storm the Garden," Arla stated with some slight hesitation.

"Y'know," Starco began. "I didn't expect for the Awoken to send in the brass until we've done something worth their time."

"We HAVE done things of note," I responded, offended. "We killed Sepiks Prime, eliminated the Fallen's route underneath the City, killed a Fallen Baroness, and that's only to name a few."

Arla hit the chair with the open palm of her hand. "Problem is that they don't necessarily care what happens to Earth and most of the Solar System aside from their personal interests and the Reef. It's a complete contrast to the Tower if you think about it."

"So what you're saying is that the Awoken don't care enough while the Tower cares too much?" I asked.

"Not exactly. Both sides have their pros and cons, but I like our side a bit more. We're part of the most advanced military force the universe has ever seen. Guardians have survived for hundreds of years in less-than-ideal circumstances oftentimes worse than ours. If they could do it, we can."

"However, they did not exactly have to go kill a species' god," Starco argued.

"You're right," Arla conceded. "They've faced worse."

I docked the ship and lowered the ramp. Without any hestitation, two Awoken guards dressed in full armor jogged up the ramp and into the ship, hands on their weapons. They stopped at the top of the ramp and stared at us with the eyeless expression the helmets afforded them. Both guards were female and looked exactly the same as the other.

"Are you Maximus and Arla Nublier?" one of them sternly asked. I couldn't tell which one spoke.

"Yes," Arla replied swiftly. At the same time, Arla seemed to grow stiff and nervous, but her voice remained confident.

"Follow us," the same guard commanded. Simultaneously, they spun on their heel and proceeded down the ramp with us following suit.

Countless Awoken soldiers, predominantly female with only a few males sprinkled in, lined our path as we walked, standing at attention without the slightest movement. In all honesty, the precision was quite impressive, much better than I expected. Arla leaned close to my auditory sensors. "It's a show of force. Don't be intimidated by it," she whispered.

I whispered back in her ear, "I'm more impressed than intimidated. The precision is remarkable."

Arla refrained from replying as we followed the two guards. They led us across a catwalk and into a room that would have been circular had it not been for the large gap keeping it open to the rest of the Outpost. Multiple banners hung from the high ceiling bearing the same insignia as the ship. A quintet of Awoken soldiers stood like statues as we approached.

Our guides motioned us forward and saluted the guards. They saluted back and parted, revealing an automatic door leading to a corridor with a throne distantly placed. Two figures were in the room at the end. One sitting in the chair and another paced in front of the seated figure as if they were discussing something. The door slammed shut as Arla and I entered, leaving the faceless soldiers behind us.

There was a tension in the air that I could not determine the source. Arla was facing her old civilization and a new monarch. From what I knew, the Awoken did not take kindly to their own who decided to defect to Earth and especially those chosen to work with the Traveler. I glanced at Arla. She held a deadpan expression on her face, but there was a small bead of sweat gathering at the top of her head just beneath the hairline. She nervously pushed back some of her hair and picked up her pace a little bit.

After an extremely drawn out 30 seconds, we stood about 6 feet from the Awoken man pacing in front of the throne and 10 feet from the throne. A small set of stairs separated us from him and him from what looked like the queen. He wore armor that looked clean but had obviously seen battle before. His brown hair matted to the left side of his head and covering his ear. His orange-gold eyes glowed intensely and looked me over as if he wanted to ravage every piece of me with an even stronger savagery as he observed Arla. The Queen sat atop a plush throne in dull pink and brown armor clashing against her light green skin with little traces of the blue (like Arla) in them. Her eyes glowed a darker green by comparison but were still extremely light almost the shade of my companion's.

The Awoken man chuckled coldly as he spoke. "My, my. What do we have here?" He clapped his hands together and came a few feet closer. "A robot and a traitor. And what might be your names. Robot, you first."

I was doing everything in my power to keep me from pulling my gun. Arla seemed to be struggling with the same restraint. It was a wonder they didn't disarm us upon landing. Then again, if we were to try anything, we'd be declaring war between Earth and the entire Awoken regime. We'd also have to fight our way through a horde of soldiers in order to just get to the ship, let alone escape. "Maximus," I spat.

"And the turncoat?" he mocked, moving closer and leaning just in front of Arla's face until their noses were less than an inch apart.

"Arla," she groaned between gnashed teeth. "Uldren, get out of my face before I make you."

The Awoken moved away and chuckled coldly once more. His words were even colder than his laugh. "I don't believe you're in a position to make any demands. Last I checked, you begged to come here, what was it again? Star?"

"Arla," the Huntress said fiercely behind even tighter teeth.

Silence ensued for several intense seconds. "Hello? Reef to Guardians? What brought you to the Reef? Time is precious, best not waste it."

I stepped forward. "We need to get into the Black Garden."

"And what are we supposed to do about it?"

"Where is it?" I demanded.

"Watch your tone Guardian. Besides, why do you need us to answer that question? _Everyone_ knows where the Black Garden is. I bet your cowardly Vanguard could tell you. The only one with any sort of guts is that Cayde character that reached out to us, and he's a robot like you, Maximillian."

This guy was getting on my last nerve, but I tried to keep my head. "It's Maximus by the way. Again, where is the Black Garden and how do we get in?"

"Well, first. Do you even have the key? Otherwise, you're just wasting your time."

That took both Arla and me aback for a moment. "Key?" I asked, confounded.

Uldren laughed again. "Yes, the key. Did you really think that the Vex would let you just waltz into their sanctuary unqualified and without a key." We stood silent and dumbfounded. He busted into hysterical laughter. "You...You honestly thought that you could just bust in guns blazing and take out one of the most evil entities in the known Universe? You Guardians really are something." He stopped laughing all of a sudden. His face and tone turned to a scold. "Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not how the universe works. Some of us only get to live and die once."

Arla's temper flared. "At least we're not over-pompous jerks about our royal positions! We go through the crap we do not only to save our City but also to keep all these enemies from invading your queendom and putting an end to all those things that you would stand...OOF!" Uldren backhanded Arla across the face supported by a jab to the opposite side of her face. Struggling to remain conscious, Arla fell flat on the ground in a daze.

"Do NOT talk back to your SUPERIORS!" He shouted.

"Superiors?" I shouted back. "YOU are not her superior. If anything, she's superior to you in almost every way."

Out of nowhere, he screeched horribly and threw a punch my direction. I ducked under it and countered with my own punch in the center of his chest. Uldren stumbled into a nearby wall and shook off the hit. "You are going to regret that," he spat, full of rage. His eyes threw daggers at me as he readied his fists and bounded forward with purposeful and aggressive steps steadily gaining in size as he approached. I stood my ground and prepared to defend myself from either a straightforward blow or one from above. Uldren suddenly slid just as he got within a few feet of my and swiftly knocked me off my feet. I started moving back up only to have him pull my legs from under me again and pin me to the floor, my face towards the ground. He put a knee into my back and wrapped his arm around my neck and held a knife to my neck.

"Y'know, we ought to send your dead carcass back to the Tower as a message from the Awoken." He flipped me over and pushed the knife even closer as I looked into his eyes. "You plead for our help and then attack us. That to me sounds like you're a messenger for war. You forget your place among us Guardian. While you remain in the Reef, you conform to our rules, and so far, you haven't."

"What have we done to offend you?" I demanded. I could see Arla gathering her wits after the abrupt and harsh blow she absorbed. She currently was on her hands and knees, but Uldren was oblivious to her movements. His arrogance would be his downfall eventually.

"For starters, you were late. Punctuality is key, especially in times of war."

"And what war would you be fighting?" I probed. 'Keep him talking'

His face grew angrier, and the knife came closer to the point where I could swear I felt its freezing blade.

"What's it matter to you? You have no rights here." Arla was only on her knees and seemed to be shaking the stars out of her vision. A nasty looking bruise was beginning to darken just below the temple, but other than that, she looked uninjured.

"Maybe we could make a trade? Tower support in your endeavors for the intel we need to take out the Black Garden." I suggested, glancing at the knife only centimeters from the cords at my neck. I needed to get out of this before either Arla or myself got seriously hurt.

Uldren's icy laugh rang throughout the throne room. "You laughter think the Tower has anything we want. More laughter It's amazing to see just how stupid you are. Next thing, you'll be begging for mercy and worshiping at my feet."

Arla toppled back over onto her hands and knees, unable to shake away the stars. There was a slight rocking motion to her that seemed to indicate that her mind may not have all been there. Like she was slowly losing consciousness. Maybe, Uldren hit her harder than I expected. I looked back at the Awoken pinning me to the ground. "Y'know, worship isn't really my thing." I clenched my right hand into a fist and turned it to face upwards. Opening the palm right underneath him, he suddenly went flying into the air and dropped the knife harmlessly onto the ground as he shot upwards. He smacked flatly into the ceiling and started careening towards the floor. During his flight, I gathered myself and stood up quickly not wanting to miss my shot. I charged up another melee as he fell and unleashed it directly into his stomach. The force flung Uldren with his legs in the air and head close to the floor directly into the wall above the Queen's throne.

Contrary to how I thought she would react, the Queen just sat there with a judgemental look on her face as if analyzing this battle. She did not appear to take any hatred towards me nor any joy in watching whom I presumed to be her brother get his butt handed to him after failing to finish me off. Her cold analytical stare was both concerning as well as comforting. Who knew what emotions stirred beneath her interior? The Queen stared at Uldren's limp body but did nothing besides stare at him accusingly.

Uldren lay limp for a couple seconds, but quickly set to work getting his arms and legs beneath him. I stayed where I was, not wanting to get too close to either of the royals. He teetered on his feet but largely kept his balance with pure and unadulterated rage etched into every cell of his being. He seethed through clenched teeth and held an arm close to his injured chest. "You think you're so clever," he spat in a voice obviously affected by the pain he felt. His free hand moved to something behind his back. "I'll show you what happens to those who try and get smart with royalty…"

Uldren pulled out some sort of blue and white sidearm and pointed it directly at me. I immediately rose both hands into the air. "Hold up a second, we meant no trouble."

"Well," he said with a quick flick of the pistol. "Looks like you've got it. You don't just assault royalty and walk away with it. Prepare for your quick judgement and execution."

Out of nowhere, the Queen jumped up and snatched the pistol from Uldren's hand. "...the Heck?" he exclaimed. He flipped around to see her clutching the gun in her hands. "YOU are not the presiding officer here. Know your place brother…" (I was right) "...We do not seek war with their Traveler." The Queen pulled him over to her throne and spoke to him for several seconds.

In the meantime, I quickly jogged over to where Arla lay limp on the ground. She was bent in an awkward and painful-looking position, bent backwards so that her legs formed a diamond shape with one arm across her face and the other down by her side. I held my hand over her mouth. She was breathing, and that was certainly a good sign, but she was out for the count. Trying to make her a little more comfortable when she woke up, I pulled her against a nearby wall and straightened out her legs gently. While tending to Arla, the Queen called out in a voice that made everything sound like it was an ultimatum, "Guardian."

I spun around and saw that her brother was gone. I started to get on one knee and bow, but she stopped me. "Granted what you've experienced here, there is no need for that, but for future reference, do so when you enter."

"Yes, your majesty," I complied.

She strode over to where I stand, blonde hair bouncing slightly as she walked in a pompous and self-magnifying gait. The Queen stopped in front of me. I hadn't noticed until now that despite being such a powerful and capable looking woman, she was a good three or four inches shorter than I was. Her voice kept the same regal quality to it, but there was a sincere apologetic undertone. "On behalf of the Reef, I apologize for the actions of Uldren. From what I understand, you came seeking information about the Black Garden."

"You are correct," I nodded.

"Pay close attention to what I say as I will not repeat. Venus, Ishtar Sink, Endless Steps. That is where you will find your key to the Black Garden. Once you have that, return here, and I will help you gain access to it. However, you may want to look around before going." I gave her my thanks and started walking away when she grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Let me reiterate our apologies. Take this…" She handed me the weapon she wrenched away from Uldren. "...you may end up requiring its services."

I looked the gun over. It was a pistol colored blue on the barrel and black on the handle and trigger. I was never a fan of weapons like this, but I also was not the type of person to refuse a gift. "Thank you Your Majesty."

"Good luck Guardian. May your Traveler's light shine on your efforts. Now, take your leave as every second that the Heart exists, the Darkness gains strength."

I nodded in response and turned around to leave, but stopped myself as I almost forgot Arla unconscious on the floor. "Your Grace, if I may make one last request before leaving…?"

"Your teammate? Yes, yes. I'll take care of that right now." The Queen motioned to something in the shadows. Seeming to materialize out of nothing, an Awoken guard moved out of the shadows holding a small syringe barely filled with a mysterious liquid. She walked over to Arla and injected the contents in her arm, As if her eyes were open before the needle touched her, Arla stood up in a matter of seconds, ignoring any discomfort she may have had from the blow Uldren inflicted. I looked at the Queen. "Adrenaline. It's only a temporary fix. Once it runs out in about 5 minutes, she'll be out cold for a while."

Arla didn't seem to hear her or even acknowledge the existence of the Queen. Instead, she bolted towards the ship. "Thank you again," I said earnestly and turned to leave. There was a look on the Queen's face as if something amused her in our previous conversation. I didn't think I said anything humorous or wrong, but different people have different interpretations.

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**Vestian Outpost, Reef, Asteroid Belt**

**Throne Room**

**Court of Queen Sov**

The Exo left silently without any further trouble. Queen Mara Sov retreated back to her plush throne placed her hand on her forehead. 'That could have gone A LOT better,' she thought. It was supposed to be a quick, peaceful meeting between the Guardian representative and herself, but no. Uldren insisted on being present. Mara pondered why she even kept her brother in such a high-ranking position when his fiery temper got him into more trouble than she should ever allow.

Uldren came around the throne and stood in front of the Queen. "I hope you're happy," he stated unapologetically. His fiery anger still consumed his eyes despite his blank facial expression. "We could have sent a message that the Tower would not soon forget."

"However that may be Uldren," Mara responded sternly. "We cannot afford to fight two wars at the same time. You know that we do not attack civilizations that have done nothing to us, and we know we can't beat."

Uldren waved off the comment. "Bah! We could take them."

"Guardians are not normal soldiers. They can die and be revived; we can't."

"That's why we either capture or destroy those Ghost things they carry around with them. Nothing is invincible."

"You make my point for me. Despite our title, we cannot expect to live forever and withstand any sort of explosion or gunshot an enemy may throw at us…"

"Which is why we die fighting!"

"No!" The Queen shouted. "It's why we stay isolated until we cannot afford to any longer."

Uldren realized what she was saying and let his fury take over again. "We are not going to broker an alliance with the Tower! They only work for themselves and that stupid Traveler."

"Without the Traveler, we wouldn't be as advanced as we are. Their forces are strong and extremely capable of putting down this rebellion."

"This Fallen uprising?" Uldren laughed. "They're nothing compared to our forces."

"They're putting up more of a fight than you think."

"How?" her brother questioned.

"They eliminated another of Petra's squads. A Special Ops squad at that. This Skolas character is proving to be more of a challenge than I thought. There's also talk that the Wolves hired a mercenary to bust a Winter Archon out of the Prison of Elders."

"A Winter Archon? What do they want wit hit? Like you said, this Skolas character seems to have all the leadership he needs in himself."

The Queen mulled this over for a minute. Then an epiphany hit her. "It isn't to find allies. He's going to unite all of the Fallen Houses and lead an assault on the Solar System."

"The Kell of Kells. You don't think it's true do you?" Uldren looked as worried as the Queen.

"I hope not. We need to consult with Variks. Uldren if you would…"

"Yes, m'lady." As her brother left, Mara Sov shifted uncomfortably in her seat. In complete honesty, this rebellions should have been over long ago, but their lackluster efforts on the battlefield have let the Wolves gain enough traction to attract the attention of the other Houses on Venus and Earth. 'At least the Moon Fallen don't recognize Skolas' power yet,' she consoled herself. 'However that may be, that does mean Skolas will make a show of power there sooner rather than later.' The Queen needed a trap, but her only suitable option was about to go on a suicide mission on Venus. "Crap!" the Queen shouted so loud it echoed all the way down the corridor and resonated in the air for a lot longer. She pointed to one of the guards she kept hidden in the shadows of the corridor. "You, get the Tower on a private channel." The guard nodded and quickly exited the throne room.


	27. Getting A'Head'

Chapter 27

Getting A'Head'

**Campus 9, Ishtar Sink, Venus**

**Fireteam Beta 8: Maximus, Arla**

**2 Days after the Reef**

**Voidwalker Maximus**

"Alright, I'm in," Starco declared as he connected with the console. "Let's hope the data hasn't been corrupted."

"What would you expect after several centuries?" I called out from the roof of the building.

"Well, look at you. You were probably deactivated for a lot longer, and you seem to be just fine. Why should I expect anything less from a system built to last longer than a footsoldier?"

"Hey! I take offense to that."

"Ok boys," Arla interrupted. "Let's keep personal arguments and vendettas clear of the comms. The Fallen and the Vex don't want us here, and they're likely going to do something to flush us out."

"I think we've established that," Starco answered. "I just wish they would show up already and not keep us waiting."

"I think I'll take the peace for now," I responded.

The sulfuric acid rain fell gently on my armor and the surroundings. There were obvious signs of corrosion on the building I perched myself on, but no structural faults as far as I could see. Arla was on the opposite side of the area setting explosive tripmines on the supports of a nearby building just in case things got too hairy for our tastes. I understand where Starco was coming from though. The Vex and Fallen were more than happy to deny us entry into the area just past the Ishtar Cliffs. Then again, we were just as happy to put a few bullets into their bodies and obtain one of their cores from a Cyclops.

What we needed was a way into the Black Garden. While the Queen didn't tell us how to get in, she did mention a key and getting an education first. From what Starco told me, Venus used to be a beacon of knowledge to the Earthly cities as well as the colonies all over the inner Solar System. In my previous life, I had heard of the Ishtar Academy, but never actually saw it working. Now, it stood as overgrown ruins with only archives remaining of its beacon of wisdom.

"Charges set!" Arla announced with a wave from below.

"Roger," I answered. I turned to Starco at the console about 8 feet or so below me. "Are you uploading this directly to the Tower?"

"That's the plan isn't it?" Starco replied confidently. "I've also sent a virus to trigger upon my disconnection. It should wipe out all of the information that could end up benefitting the enemy."

"Should or will? There is a difference."

"You know what I mean."

"Ok. Arla I have a feeling that they'll teleport directly in front of us and at the base of that hill over there to flank us. I'll leave you the choice." I honestly hoped that she would take the area closest to Starco, so I could test out this sidearm.

"I'll take the front area," Arla decided after a moment of thought. Her decision did not disappoint.

Arla started making her way to where I was above the data hub while I hopped off the building. We high-fived as we passed each other and continued to our decided destinations. I stood at the crest of a hill looking downward towards a more open area at the trough. A circular metal structure attached itself to the high cliffs above my head and cast string-like shadows across the evening light on the ground. Speaking of, there was a much smaller version of this structure at the bottom of the hill, but it was connected to the ground and looked a little more put together by comparison. The other structure had a copper coloration to it with a sort of circular back-plating.

Several minutes passed in complete silence. No Vex in sight. Arla was clearly growing impatient; she was basically guaranteed a fight, and the lack thereof annoyed her severely. "Seriously, where are the Vex? This is ridiculous."

"Maybe they thought the Fallen were more of a threat," Starco suggested. "I'm about to connect the Mind Core and start analyzing. Any objections? No? Ok, let's do this." Starco's comms went full of static for a moment but stabilized. "Uh, quick question. Is it supposed to be glowing like that?"

"Multiple Vex signatures incoming!" Stargazer warned from Arla's suit.

"What did you do?" I accused Starco. A giant black cloud gathered at the bottom of the hill with light coursing through it like lightning.

"I connected the Cyclops' head to the systems, and a message popped up followed by the head glowing."

"Well, what did the message say?" Arla demanded.

"It won't matter if we don't repel the Vex in front of us right now!"

He was right as much as I did not like to admit it. I pulled out my sniper rifle and went prone on the top of the hill. The black cloud dissipated and revealed about a dozen Vex taking aim at me. Two Hobgoblins flanked a MInotaur in the center three Harpies charging up the middle. Goblins made up the rest of the escort. They fired all at once. The Minotaur's slow purple orbs of light crashed just short of my position while the Hobgoblins' went well above my head. The Harpies' and Goblins' shots whizzed by my ear or crashed into the hill below me.

Reacting fast, I tossed in a Scatter Grenade and carved a shot right through a Harpy's central eye. The grenade exploded into a dozen smaller pieces and easily took out the left flank of the escort. I fired another shot at the remaining Hobgoblin but got it blocked by its shield of fire.

I held my ground against the incoming fire as I waited for the shield to dissipate. When it did, I fired a shot straight at the white area on the Vex's midsection. It exploded into a white goo that splattered onto the ground and its nearby comrades. Though they may have noted the one I killed, they continued their steady advance up the hill undaunted. I could hear the sounds of battle not far behind me and looked back in time to see Arla throw her knife at a Goblin and leap high into the air.

I strapped the rifle back on my back and drew the hand cannon. Counting the damage I did with the grenade, I was able to clear out just above half of the units coming my direction. Even with the power the hand cannon afforded me, I wouldn't be able to kill them in time before they joined with the rest of their unit and overrun Arla as well as myself. Then I saw the cloud behind them, more Vex coming in to do their carnage.

Holding my ground from the top of the hill would be fruitless until they came too close to the top of the hill. I holstered the gun almost as fast as I drew it out. I transferred most of my excess power into the gauntlets and blindly charged forward. I blinked over all the the enemies trying to draw their attention back to where they spawned. To an extent, it worked. All of them turned around and started firing at where I was now, but they did not stop moving up the hill for more than a few seconds.

I opened both palms and started growing orbs, accelerated by the amount of power I gave it. However, I decided to do the Bomb a little different this time. I mashed both of the growing orbs together between my two hands and started moving forward. The newly created, singular orb burned hot against my gloves as I rushed towards the Vex. My shields took quite a few hits, but I made it to the middle of their pack. At which point, I leapt into the air and threw down a massive orb of energy and plasma into the ground.

The ground quaked violently upon impact, and a semi-circular and purple-tinted field opened up below me as I blinked away. In the middle was a singularity black as space itself sucking everything towards it and ripping any enemy to pieces almost as soon as it entered. Vex unlucky enough to be part of the initial blast got vaporized instantaneously while others collapsed on themselves or got torn apart.

I left the annihilation of those Vex behind me as I soared through the air. Out of nowhere, explosions surrounded me, and their clouds blocked any vision in front of me. My flight came to an abrupt halt when something hard seized me at the torso. The hand swung me down and centered me in front of its owner. "Arla, I'm in a bit of a bind at the moment," I struggled to say into the comms. The pressure the hand exerted was immense. It felt as if it was squeezing the life right out of me with almost no effort at all.

I stared into the Minotuar's red eye at the center of its small head. It gave off a cold and lifeless air as if there was no intelligence behind it. I squirmed beneath its formidable grip and tried to pry at least one of its fingers off of me. When that failed, I moved an arm behind my back to grab the hand cannon that was hopefully not crushed. Sensing the movement, the hand crushed me harder and pinned my hand along with my arm uncomfortably against my back just above the barrel of the cannon. I squirmed again, bringing pain to my shoulder and hand, but eventually got my hand to what felt like the trigger and handle. I wedged my hand beneath it somehow and instinctively squeezed as hard as I could. Nothing happened. Instead, I got an even harder squeeze from the Minotaur that just looked at me for some reason, as if waiting for me to something to it.

Then I realized its plan. I adjusted my head so I could just see around its hulking form. Arla was backed into a corner, taking cover from several Hobgoblins. She could see them just fine, but what she couldn't see was the Minotaur and handful of Goblins hurriedly closing on her position. Against the pressure from the squeeze, I moved my hand to the right some and brushed against something. I made another snatch for it and got a loud _BANG_ from it.

Not expecting the sudden retaliation, the Minotaur grabbed its hand and dropped me harshly on the ground. I collected myself and searched for something witty to say but came up with nothing before it made a swipe at me. I backflipped off its hand and strafed right in a circle. It lunged forward with a heavy fist and successfully pummeled the Venusian soil. Seizing the opportunity, I halted my momentum and leveled a shot at its head. The bullet hit just as it turned its eye towards me. The head went skittering away, but the robot remained standing. Angry arcs moved up and down its body.

"Hold up a moment!" I shouted to myself. "You should be dead." However, the Minotaur did not care about when I thought it should die.

"Yeah, that tends to happen when you fight the Vex," Arla added whilst firing her own shots in the background. The Vex robot charged and threw a fist at me again. I rolled out of the way and fired a shot, hitting it just below the shoulder. It shrugged off the hit and lunged at me again.

I sidestepped the hit but the soil sprayed everywhere, and I got a faceful of it. Instead of clearing it off, I leveled my gun back on the Minotaur's torso and let off two quick shots. Following the shots, nothing happened for several seconds. It was as if time froze between my adversary and myself. I had little control over my body; any movements I tried to make felt like I was doing them in a vat of molasses during winter. A disembodied gruff voice echoed in my helmet. It was very similar to that of ancient text-to-speech voices in the way it accented certain syllables and delivered its English. "The Great and Powerful Zydron challenges you. You shall not gain access to the Garden."

Time sped up again almost as soon as it slowed. Through my splotched visor, I saw the Minotaur stand still for a few moments, fall to its knees, and then fall to the side without any further motion. The helmet tried to clear the sulfuric acid-laden soil with the Molecular Emancipation Stripe sweeping across the interface, but some pieces held their ground even after three swipes. I tried using my hand but only seemed to make it worse, growing several splotches to a sizable portion of my screen. One of these splotches suddenly turned clear and continued the image of the skirmish in front of me. At first, I thought it was a repair, but then I noticed a subtle difference in the tinting between the "repaired" spot and the rest of the visor. I moved behind a rock for cover, firing whenever I wasn't talking in order to help Arla some.

"Hey, uh Starco," I called out. "I've got two questions."

"If one of them is 'when will I be done?' The answer is I don't know."

"That wasn't either of them. How long did you say it takes for the sulfuric acid to eat away at the armor?"

"Several days of continued exposure. Due to the Atmospheric Regulators in the region, the acid is diluted to somewhat 'suit'able levels. The process can be accelerated by pressure."

I pushed a new cartridge in and fired a couple shots before ducking back into cover. They were errant and basically blind shots, but I think I wounded something. "Alright that's not what I wanted to hear. Second question, can you despawn my helmet?"

Starco picked up on something that was not my intention at all. "Ok, I know things are bad, but suicide is NEVER the answer. Besides, it would be excruciating all the way until you died, and then Arla would revive you…"

"Hold up a minute!" I interrupted. "That's not what I meant at all."

Starco was silent for several seconds, probably reprocessing what I said. "You ruined ANOTHER piece of armor!" he accused. "Come ON Maximus! You have to be careful. At least acid damage can be fixed on the screen, but I'm not making guarantees on any other part of it."

"I haven't been _that_ careless with my things…"

"I beg to differ. Do I need to recount the suits of armor you've gone through in the last few months?"

"Fine. Fine, finefine. Just fix the helmet will you; I can barely see anything." Anticipating its despawn, I risked moving under a walkway attached to the building rigged to blow. Sure none of the acid rain was going to leak onto me, I removed my helmet and tossed it away. As soon as it left my head, Starco despawned it in a flash of light and sent it back a few seconds later. After a short recalibration, I replaced it on my head and reloaded.

I jumped and climbed on top of the catwalk and then the building. Seeing a pod of Goblins and a Minotaur, I threw a scatter grenade in their direction and jumped the opposite way. I landed hard and was immediately surrounded by Goblins and Harpies. Red lasers danced around me and sent my shields spiraling towards their breaking point. I ducked below one laser and sent my own shot straight into the white spot on the Goblin's torso. Still dancing away from their shots, I landed several hits on the Vex around me.

Everthing around me seemed to no longer matter except for my gun and the Vex I was steadily killing with it. At least, that was until I felt a sharp burning pain in my shoulder in the midst of my spree. I threw out both arms and blinked away immediately back to where I had taken cover shields had collapsed without me knowing it, but recovered a few seconds later. Slamming a new capsule into the hand cannon and holding my back flat against the base of the building, I peered around the side of the building and saw another dark cloud of Vex forming. I couldn't see Arla anywhere, so I figured she was doing the same as me. Perfect time to call her over the radio. "Arla, where are you at?"

There was no response for several seconds, only static. I repeated my question, and, after a moment of static, Arla responded. "I'm on top of the building still. Under heavy fire from these...dang it...these Hobgoblins. Ooooh! That stings!"

"What happened?" I asked, concerned.

"One of these metalheads just collpased my shields and took a slice at my armor."

I leaned out of cover and let a few shots loose on the gathering Vex horde. "Are you compromised at all?"

Several seconds passed. Eventually, Arla responded, "I-I don't think so, but I do NOT recommend taking a shot from one of those buggers."

"You're preaching to the choir," I responded automatically. I honestly had no idea where that response came from. It was probably the Traveler's extended effects. Though, I do want to know why it makes me think more like a human rather than keep me as I am. Humans, and their Awoken realatives, make plenty of mistakes that can be avoided, but the Exo deal with them and make some of our own.

A flash of explosive purple knocked me out of my thoughts and slammed me into the wall. A Vex grenade exploded at my feet and threw me into the catwalk above me as well as pinned me into the wall. Everything went blurry and their was a high-pitched ringing in my ears. From the multitude of unfamiliar shapeless figures, I could barely make out the colors of my helmet laying several feet in front of me, caught on a rock and striking a fragile balance between falling and pinning itself against said rock.

The ground swirled below me and was a tad discolored as I tried to make sense of what just happened. Gunfire resonated what seemed like far away, but I knew it was much closer than I would have liked. To my own amazement, I got up onto my hands and knees and began crawling forward slowly. After a few steps, I was dragging myself with my arms than actually crawling; it was really more of a lazy army crawl than anything, but I was moving towards my helmet.

In the span of about a minute, I had traveled about 4 feet. However, I started to feel some sort of buzz in the back of my neck and head. Stopping momentarily appeased it, but continued movement amplified its effects until it started becoming painful. My already poor vision started turning black at the edges and became a dizzying mass of colors beyond any recognition whatsoever. I had to stop, not because I wanted to, but because I didn't want to inflict any harm to me; I also could not take the spinning anymore. I'd say it was nauseating, but that wouldn't be the right word to describe it, too...ill-fitting.

I flopped over onto my back and stared upwards at the catwalk. I shut my eyes and only listened to what was around me. Goblins and Hobgoblins clanked on the metal walkway above me. Minotuars _thunked_ as they fired their purple orbs of destruction at whom I presumed to be Arla somewhere above me. Though it sounded extremely distant, I could hear the garbled language of the Vex somewhere nearby, but I couldn't stand to open my eyes and look at the confusing mass again. My head and neck blasted every available sensor with pain signals but disallowed me to power off due to the "proximity of lethal threats." Eventually though, everything went quiet and, without warning, dark.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

**Gunslinger Arla Nublier**

Three red beams sliced the air above her head. Two pummeled the hill in front of her and sent a spray of Venusian soil across the roof and down the hole in the middle, while the third slammed into the stone barrier she used for cover just above her head.

Arla reloaded her _Hard Light_ Auto Rifle, a slick-looking black gun with sharp corners and a rear-loaded magazine, and aimed at one of the Hobgoblins keeping her pinned down behind cover. After dodging another shot and refocusing her gaze down the sights, Arla pulled the trigger and shot a spray of volatile orb projectiles at the targeted enemy. A couple hit their mark, but the rest got deflected by the heat shield the Hobgoblin activated when it sensed the incoming damage. She did the same to the one next to it, producing the same result, but then unleashed the remainder of the clip back at the original Hobgoblin. Before reloading again, Arla clenched a grenade in her hand and tossed it at an encroaching mob of Goblins and Harpies trying to gain entrance into the bunker below her and her position. Upon impact, the grenade exploded into tiny orange fragments that sought different targets that then burst upon the second impact. Needless to say, several small explosions dotted the area below her. Enjoying the moment for only a second before a Hobgoblin sent her back into cover, the sight brought a small smile to her battle-induced poker face.

Arla sat with her head against the concrete barrier and her back low enough to keep her head from accidentally sticking out and proving an easy target for anything. Seizing the opportunity, Stargazer spoke over the comms. "Arla, we've got a situation. Maximus is down and in need of a resurrection."

'He died _again_,' Arla thought in disbelief but instead said in an exasperated sigh, "This does not need to become a habit." She slammed another clip into the gun and slipped down into the open bunker where Starco floated, connected to some sort of analysis machine. The mind core of the Cyclops they killed earlier had several wires connected in various spots and glowed as if it were alive. Several lasers chased her down the decline, but all missed. Arla crouched below a window and fired blindly every couple seconds. "Starco, I need a resurrection. How far are you into that research?" She raised a reversed weapon over her head and fired without looking for a couple seconds then pulled it back down.

"I...don't know. I think I'm almost done. I'm trying to gain as much information as I can before activating the virus."

"Estimation please," she commanded.

"Uh, 90%?" he responded tentatively.

"Can I momentarily connect Stargazer to you to get Maximus back? It'll only…" A Goblin cut her off as it busted through the doorway, but Arla's quick reflexes with her throwing knife cut its critical spot open and started draining its fluids onto the ground, killing it within a few seconds of impact. "Hold still Starco," Arla commanded. She grabbed her Ghost and pushed it towards Starco. There was a small spark of energy between them, but nothing else happened. Arla stood back for several precious seconds as she waited for Maximus to suddenly appear in a flash of light very similar to a Ghost's. Instead, something disappeared out of the corner of her eyes, but she didn't catch it in time to see what it was.

Out of nowhere, a flash of purple highlighted every part of the room and cast ghostly shadows on the walls. Light exploded all around her and sent her through the window, directly into the Vex. Arla scrambled to her feet and immediately pulled out her Golden Gun, a specials hand cannon colored as the name implies. With only a flick of the wrist, she tapped into her suit's energy reserves and sent flames up and down her body as well as on the gun. A feeling invincibility crept into her mindset as the flames lick the edges of her helmet and infused the specialized hand cannon in her hand. Arla angled her shot so that two Goblins just lined up with each other and pulled the trigger. Both of the Vex soldiers were incinerated on impact. Spinning on her heel, Arla lined up a similar shot but with a Goblin and a Harpy, making sure not to miss that shot.

Her fiery euphoria came to an abrupt end as a large hand suddenly gripped her at the waist and immobilized her arms in an uncomfortable position. Arla struggled in the hand while keeping watch on her shields as they dropped slowly but surely. She needed to do something fast otherwise her Super Charge would end and leave her basically defenseless to the crushing grip. Arla squeezed the trigger on her Golden Gun, letting loose the last round just as the Super Charge expired.

The Minotaur tossed her several dozen feet in the air as it reeled back, holding its arm. Arla pulled her knife out of its sheath and adjusting her form so that she plummeted as fast as possible. Air whistled by her ears as she extended her knife outward like a small sword and prepared to drive it into the Minotaur's eye. It stared at her with its lifeless red eye and in one swift motion, grabbed Arla, stepped out of the way, and threw her into the ground with almost all of the gathered momentum.

There was no time to feel any pain as the impact immediately knocked her out cold.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Arla slowly regained consciousness but kept her eyes shut so as not to alert her captors to her regained consciousness. She could hear a scraping sound and felt pins and needles stabbing into her sleeping arms. Her head pounded while her torso throbbed from the bruises quickly forming on a large part of her body. Needless to say, she was not very comfortable, and the Vex, likely Goblins, dragging her on the ground and finding every possible rock and bump was not helping in the slightest.

Despite her hardened resolve to keep her status a secret, Arla snuck a peek and found that it was midnight. Normally she would have checked the local time on the upper right of her visor, but a large horizontal crack spanning all the way from left to right did not allow her to even activate the HUD aside from her shield status. 'And it was a brand new helmet too,' Arla shouted within the confines of her head, venting the frustration in silently and motionlessly. She had no idea where the Vex were taking her, their identities confirmed by their garbled language, but she was in no position to rebel and allowed herself to continue being dragged.

The longer she thought, the more she realized that she was not alone with her thoughts. She sensed Stargazer's gentle presence within her own stream of consciousness. Though she was confident of its identity, she still wanted to make a careful judgement. 'Stargazer, are you there?'

'Yes, it's me,' her voice echoed through Arla's head. 'I don't know what went wrong. I definitely connected with Starco when I arrived, but it was like he stored the energy for later.'

'That definitely is strange.'

'What's even stranger is that when I connected, there were at least two other entities inside his sphere of influence. Or perhaps he was in something else's.' Stargazer's voice was extremely concerned. Nothing had ever breached a Ghost's mainframe.

'What do you mean?'

'One of them was definitely a Vex signature, but it was much more powerful than any of the ones around us. The other was strange. An identity that I'd never sensed before...it was almost like an Exo or something like it was either watching us or trying to hack in.'

'That is definitely strange,' Arla pondered this for a minute. Strange didn't come close to scratching the surface. 'Did it try to interfere in any way? How did it behave?'

'I really wish you wouldn't ask me these types of questions. It's like describing four or five dimensional space to one that can only see and utilize three. Picture the data like a large pool of water with the various entities all swimming around in it, colliding with the water molecules, or in this case, the copious amounts of data moving about. Entities like a Ghost sort through this information until we find and download the ones we want or need…'

'Sounds inefficient,' Arla silently remarked.

'I heard that. As I was saying though, there were four things in the metaphorical water: Starco, that Vex signature, the strange signal, and myself. I went relatively unnoticed as I didn't sift through anything, just got close to Starco's presence and briefly interfaced with it. The Vex signature seemed to chase after Starco but left me alone. Occasionally, it would shoot streams of data at him but only hit him once; I don't know if it was some sort of security measure, but it looked malicious. The strange entity was, in a word, idle. In simple terms, it was like it was hovering over the pool of data, only engaging every now and again, but it didn't act like a normal AI.'

'I don't quite understand. Wouldn't Exos be nothing without some sort of AI guiding them and rationalizing their choices?'

'That's where their true complexity begins. I might gain an understanding of organic life eventually, but no Ghost will ever be able to figure out the mindset of an Exo. There's no doubt that they're alive, but at the same time, it's like they're more than alive. You are right; they wouldn't be able to survive without some sort of AI determining the best course of action, but you forget that all the Exo look and act differently. If they had an AI, they would make extremely similar decisions and rarely deviate from a set course. They also would never miss a target. What has Maximus done on multiple occasions?'

'He's missed. Heck, he even hit Lee with a rocket and sent him to the Hospital Ward in ICU.'

'Do you know about the Itskov Project?'

'This isn't exactly the time for a history lesson! We're kind of on borrowed time before the Vex decide to drop the dead weight and kill us both.'

'I'll be quick. Besides, we're nowhere near their target destination. This seems to be a patrol unit of some sort just making their rounds with a prisoner. Either way, the Itskov Project was originally going to put a living human brain into a humanoid robot and have a complete transfer of all memories and personality from the human to the new robotic host. In short, it failed miserably. Itskov said it would take approximately 30 years make it a reality but only found a way to kill 20 innocent people who braved his experimental group. He just couldn't keep the brains alive long enough to complete the transfer.'

'I do not see how this is helping.'

'I'm getting to that; I'm getting to that. Ok, so his plan was a bust, but American technologist Oliver Callaghan figured out a way for human memories to be downloaded onto a databank and accessed on any device. Essentially, he took recently deceased humans, literally seconds after their death, and quickly hooked it up to an electrical current simulating the synapses throughout the brain. Using pieces of data scattered into the system to download any memory or piece of data that made that person act like him/herself. He then could convert these memories to video files, and, with a little bit of puzzle solving, could reconstruct an entire memory that could then be uploaded on to the internet in an extremely large MP4 file. Fact is, it could be done.

'U.S. Robotics, then known as Google Inc., hired him two weeks after he presented his success by showing the memory of a retired firefighter who rescued several people in the September 11th attacks on the United States in 2001. U.S. Robotics helped him further his craft to downloading the entire psyche of a human onto their supercomputer. Do you know who they uploaded?'

'No, and frankly, I don't care.'

'Well, you don't seem to have a choice at the moment unless you want the Vex to riddle you with holes and plasma burns. Back to the subject at hand then. They uploaded arguably one of the greatest human minds in history: Stephen flipping Hawking…'

'What kind of a name is "Flipping?"'

'That wasn't part of his name. Either way, they got him onto a supercomputer, and it started processing all sorts of data much faster than any of its predecessors or even the computer itself. Thus, the Singularity was born, but it was a controlled singularity. The extent of its evolution was capped by the human thoughts that drove it onward. For all Hawking knew, he fell asleep in the real world and woke up in an artificially created world that gave him access to all the things he needed to work continuously.

'With his equations, space travel to and from distant parts of the solar system suddenly seem plausible. Early versions of the warp drive bring voyages to Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon all within a couple of hours after launch. A couple decades later, they begin making them habitable to sustain human life and start setting up colonies there. The only problem was that not many people, just under 50 in the entire world, wanted to live indefinitely on a planet, scouting it for the best possible places to set up a new colony.

'What does U.S. Robotics do? They run a mass drive for human personalities, allowing people to take generous compensation for allowing them to take their memories and download them into a database and use it as part of their Beyond Earth Scouting Initiative (B.E.S.I.). They sent armies of BESI robots to Mars, Venus, and Mercury and basically waited for the people to die in order for their personalities to be uploaded into a waiting robot on one of the planned colony planets and start scouting and building, so people could escape the growing pollution on Earth and make it easier to fix it as there were now less emissions.'

Arla was steadily growing more and more interested in what Stargazer had to say. She was generally familiar with the pop culture and general scientific knowledge up until about 2180. Knowledge from the 21st Century was hard to find and seemingly for good reason.

Stargazer continued. 'As it seems to be a theme in science, before you can take a few steps forward, you must take a dozen back, or in this case, a few thousand. The BESI mission was relatively successful, but people steadily realized that they had actually died once before. Despite the new bodies, they quickly realized that they were not invincible as increasingly powerful dust storms and actual storms cropped up seemingly out of nowhere and wiped out dozens of the robots left out in the open. Curiously enough, the strange storms ceased as soon as all of the robots were reported deactivated or permanently deceased.

'After this failure, U.S. Robotics focused on different areas of their expertise until war broke out. There are not many records of this war that have survived, but there are reports that the American military paid U.S. Robotics to take the minds of soldiers within a week of their death and restore them in robotic bodies as if nothing had ever happened. The increase in human-computer synthesis made this process even easier and more cost-efficient. They were called Hardware Exoskeletons originally, programmed to be perfect weapons of war with the same adaptive capabilities as a human. By order of the Federal Government, the fact that there were remnants of people inside the machines was kept inside a seemingly invincible encryption followed by several passcodes and other security measures that are only childsplay for our Cryptarchs today. Then China decided to try and nuke the world, and the heavy amounts of radiation scrambled civilization underground in sealed, underground vaults. The radiation seemed to, for lack of a better term, edit the coding within the Exoskeletons. Their robotic and human limitations seemed to steadily disappear over the course of the next century or so. They retained the ability to make mistakes, but they weren't fully human nor automaton.'

'So what you're suggesting is that they are man evolving symbiotically with a machine?'

'Sort of. What I'm suggesting is that they are beyond the simple barriers between man and machine. They seem to have something more than AI; they appear to have not only a consciousness...but a soul.'

'No way,' Arla refused. 'Maximus, as much as I hate to stereotype, is a machine. If he died, we could rebuild him.'

'Granted we could rebuild him, but he wouldn't be the same Maximus you've grown accustomed to and care for. If he dies permanently, then the piece of humanity in his head is lost forever without any hope of replacement.'

Engrossed in their conversation, Arla never noticed they had stopped and her arms were now by her sides. She looked up and saw two lifeless, red eyes staring at her intently. The Goblins standing over her said something in their garbled tongue. One nodded in agreement and they both took an arm and carried Arla several feet forward without any resistance. Being sure to inflict as much pain as possible, they harshly threw her to the ground. Arla shot a murderous glare their direction, but they didn't care in the slightest; instead, they turned their head to the right and slightly upward in perfect unison. Arla turned her gaze to the same thing they were staring so intently at.

A little over a hundred yards away, a giant circular gate rose menacingly from the ground. It looked like a much larger version of Vex portals she and Maximus destroyed before this. "What the heck is that?" she whispered. Suddenly, a blue-white cylinder of gridded light surrounded her, trapping her in a space barely large enough for her to stand. Arla scanned for an exit but found nothing of the sort, the prison of light seemed to extend just past where she thought she could jump. Trying to think her way out, Arla saw a different pair of Goblins hauling a heavy and limp body, as if it was dead, towards a metal circle in front of the portal. The energy barrier blocked out most of the colors, but she could make out what looked to be a robe worn by Warlocks. 'Maximus,' she immediately realized.

A sense of urgency surged through her. Aggressively but maintaining some sense of caution, she reached out and touched the barrier. Pain shot through her hand and especially the finger that touched the hard light. She immediately checked the glove for any compromises but thankfully found none, but the tip of the glove was partially melted. While her finger throbbed with pain, she didn't think that it was burned.

Arla looked towards the giant Vex gate. An orb of energy grew in its center until it covered the entire gate. An outline appeared in the light of the portal and steadily grew more opaque. 'Something big's about to get through that thing,' she thought. Initially ignoring the pain, she thrust her shoulder into the barrier and tried to push through. The wall of light rejected her immediately and thewr her into the rear portion of it. She collided with the wall of light several times before she thrust her weight into one of the impacts and got stuck within the wall. Grunting with the effort it took to push through, Arla moved through the wall as if she was in slow motion. Slowly but steadily, she progressed through the trap. Her right arm was almost through when a fiery pain sizzled through her arm. Unable to turn her head, she did her best to look down at her arm within the confines of her helmet. She watched in abject horror as the armor on her right arm and shoulder shredded into small pieces before her eyes, leaving her skin exposed to the acid rain. The pain became unbearable as it spread to other parts of her body.

Trying to limit the damage, Arla pulled back her weight and moved back into her prison without any further pain. The right side of her body throbbed incessantly, but at least there was no acid rain to agitate the wound for the moment. She sat down carefully, making sure to stay within the circle which meant sitting cross-legged and keeping her legs a little higher up than was naturally comfortable.

The Goblins carrying Maximus dumped him in the center of that circle and stepped back. With only a few seconds of delay, massive limbs appeared in the portal followed by a torso and finally the head. As it pushed through the portal, the pieces came closer together, ultimately forming a giant Minotaur, much larger than any she'd faced previously. A moment of awe passed through her mind as she stared at the Minotaur.

It jumped out of the portal and shook the ground violently and sent her bouncing into the the sides multiple times before being unceremoniously dumped on the ground, her back and legs touching opposite sides of the wall and burning immensely. With a little more pain than Arla would have preferred, she righted herself back into a seated position just in time to hear the Minotaur roar in apparent anger. It furiously grabbed Maximus' dead body, swung it around some, and kicked swept the ground with its other hand, destroying almost three-quarters of the Vex present. The others immediately moved away and bowed, hoping not to be crushed as well. Whether out of forgiveness or curbed anger, it spared them and threw Maximus as if he weighed nothing. His body made a slow spiral in a steady arc as he flew almost majestically through the air.

Maximus hit the apex of the arc and started descending sharply. Based on his trajectory, Arla predicted that he was going to crash into the ground and slide into her prison. She tried to back away but only backed into the wall and sent another surge of pain flaring through her back. She looked up helplessly as she now realized that he was going to crash straight into her, either pushing her through the barrier or vaporizing her instantaneously.

Refusing to accept the hand she was dealt, Arla leapt into the air to try and grab the edge and haul herself over despite the pain. Instead of jumping straight up like she'd hoped, Arla bounced into the wall and rattled around before she could activate the suit-assisted double jump, slamming face first into one part of the wall followed by the back of her armor and cloak searing against the other. Using the momentum gathered by the dizzying bouncing, she rocketed out of the tubular prison of light and soared into the air, much higher than she would have liked.

Noticing the flying Huntress, the small remainder of the Vex grunts rushed forward for a better shot, firing as they ran regardless of how bad of a look it was. Arla twisted and bent in the air to avoid them, but one managed to gash both legs in her armor as she rolled tightly to avoid a strike meant for her head. Looking at the ground to guide her descent, Arla spread her arms and legs to give her more air time and stability. Out of nowhere, her arm caught on something and took her along with it. Thinking it was some sort of Vex tactic, Arla grabbed her backup knife with her right hand and forcefully rolled to get a better view of her assailant. Instead of looking into the singular red eye of a Goblin, she was staring into the two yellow eyes of Maximus. "Trust me," he stated calmly, his helmet appearing just after he said that.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I crashed into the ground much harder than I anticipated. Of course, Arla being on top of me did not help either. Upon impact, Arla bounced off to my left while I continued rolling across the soil. Each impact jostled me a little more, adding to the pain in my head, but my shields stayed relatively steady at just over 50%. I rolled over onto my back and looked at the sky for a few seconds. The rain had stopped while I was out, but darker clouds approached from not too far off, so our time was limited before the acid came back, and the Vex would likely flee or at least the Gate Lord.

I heard the crunching of soil to my right and saw Arla stiffly making her way to where I lay. I sat up, feeling the same stiffness as she did. "You alright?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just remind me not to delay my self-maintenance check for a couple centuries," I responded. She laughed heartily and extended a hand to help me up. Accepting the hand, I stood up and looked myself over. There were a few laser and plasma burns in the cloth but nothing a quick respawn at the Tower couldn't fix. Arla's armor was faring much worse though; it was compromised in several places, revealing either the undersuit or being sliced all the way to her skin. "Question is: Are you alright? You're armor's compromised."

"Nothing but a scratch," she assured me. "I can talk to Eva and get fitted for a new suit in the next couple of days."

"Something tells me we don't have a couple days to spend idly in the Tower. Remember, we have to meet with the Awoken again, so they can extract whatever key we need to get into the Black Garden."

Arla folded her arms. "True...Well, let's not worry about that right now. We only have an 80 foot behemoth looking to pound us into small pieces standing in the way of that."

"I think I have a plan to deal with him quickly."

"Think?"

"Well, it's extremely risky and may not even be possible without serious repercussions. Do you want to try it?" There was a good chance one of us would not be walking away from this if any part of it goes awry."

"It's one more plan than I've got. Fire away."

"Well before we start going pumping bullets into the thing…"

"You know what I meant Maximus," Arla replied, not laughing at my comical jab this time.

I sat down and started crudely drawing the battlefield; the portal farther away from us with the Gate Lord standing in front of it, several large rock formations with the accompanying stairs, and then I drew us in scale to how far away we were from the coming battle. "So from what I gather, that thing wasn't too happy when it picked up my 'dead' body and killed a large portion of its grunts."

"Right." Arla crouched down next to me and watched me draw a pair of arrows parallel to each other.

"My plan takes us on the perimeter of the rocks, eliminating the rest of the grunts. Then we have the Gate Lord over there to deal with. We need a two-pronged assault; you take the left, while I take the right. What needs to happen is that we take turns firing at it, so its AI will go to the most immediate threat. When we run out of real estate, we need to each get a rocket or two into its torso and legs. If we get that thing on the ground, I want you to stab the absolute crap out of the central weak spot; I'll work on getting the head free. We're probably going to dodge a lot of fire and absorb more. Are you sure your armor can take it?"

Arla waited a few seconds before deciding. "This definitely is a risky plan as so much can go wrong. I'm willing to try though, but I want to make a small revision: We move slower than blindly sprinting forward whilst shooting. I was thinking that one would move up while the other shoots. My armor can take more punishment than yours comparatively, but you aren't wrong to say that it's in a pretty poor state right now."

Then it was my turn to mull it over for a moment. This was definitely a more sound strategy than my original idea, but the high risk and small margin of error remained. "Agreed. Let's do it," I said despite my concerns. I stood up and wiped away the plan with my foot.

Arla and I took our positions silently. Nodding that I was ready, I looked down the scope of the Multi-Tool and aimed right at the center spot on an unsuspecting Hobgoblin. I took my eye away from the scope and glanced at Arla, who nodded. I looked back down the sights and put my finger on the trigger. Not counting any possibly hidden targets, there were only three Vex Goblins remaining, and they were all within my kill zone.

Not hesitating anymore, I squeezed the trigger and sent a bullet screaming toward one of the Goblins. It exploded in a flurry of robotic limbs and white liquid as I took aim at the other two and dispatched them just as quickly. "Grunts clear Arla," I called out. The Gate Lord took notice to me just as I predicted and fired several explosive rounds in my direction. I strafed left behind a rock and let all three either crash into the ground next to me or fly over my head.

I looked over my cover to see Arla swap the ridge she was running on and start firing her weapon into the Gate Lord's torso. Seizing the opportunity, I vaulted over my cover and fired as well, against the plan but hopefully worth it in the long run. Arla reloaded, and I tossed in a scatter grenade that burst all over its chest. Reaching the end of the path, Arla and I wordlessly pulled out our rocket launchers and leapt. Both rockets smashed into the Gate Lord's chest and sent it stumbling backwards, but it remained on its feet. "Arla, keep going for the chest," I commanded. "I'll improvise something to get the head."

"Roger," she quickly replied, staying behind cover and shooting every couple of seconds before ducking back. Realizing I'd been staring at the head for too long, I looked down just in time to see the ground run out from beneath me. By pure instinct, I jumped at the absolute last second and soared towards the Gate Lord. It swung one of its large metal hands to knock me out of the air, but I latched on and released when it reached its climax, shooting at the back of its neck as I fell. I grabbed onto the lip separating its torso from its neck and hung for a few seconds. My gun fell limply on its sling and thankfully did not drop 80 feet below me. The Gate Lord jerked left and right, trying to throw me off, but my grip stayed true.

Arla fired another rocket at it, sending it reeling backwards and pressing me against its smooth metal. I hauled myself up onto its neck and swapped the Multi-Tool for my hand cannon. Feeling its dense weight in my hand, I grabbed one of the cords attaching the Gate Lord's massive head and used it as leverage as I fired away with the hand cannon. One by one, the cords snapped until only a handful remained. Suddenly, the Vex lurched forward, causing me to accidentally send my hand cannon plummeting 8 stories below.

Rather than summoning it back into my hand, I wedged myself just inside the neck and started tugging at the cords manually. I grabbed two with both hands and tugged at them. After an initial resistance, they gave way and leaked some sort of chemical or fluid all over its insides. I continued pulling at the cords until there was a loud clicking noise and a violent whirring.

The entire Gate Lord collapsed and fell forward, taking me with it. All of its body except for the now-severed head, turned an angry orange and fiery red with small sparks spiraling off of it. Just as it was going to hit the ground, the body disappeared, leaving me to absorb the brunt of the impact with the soil face-first.

I rolled a little after the impact but stopped eventually on my back. My HUD was completely black for several seconds before I realized that it was covered in Venusian soil once again. Instead of trying to rub it off, I just sat there in relative darkness until I couldn't take it anymore. I slipped off the helmet and pounded it against the ground a few times to shake off the dirt. I clasped the helmet back on and remained in a seated position, telling myself repeatedly that we were one step closer to vanquishing this Darkness.

Arla walked nearby and sat down next to me. Her armor may as well have been in tatters; it was not going to defend against anything at this point. The outer cloth, that was normally brown, was a charred black. Her helmet had a noticeable horizontal crack across the entire visor. She was breathing heavily, but I could tell she had an exhausted smile on her face. "Well," she said between breaths. "That could have gone better."

"It worked though. I'll take success over failure any day of the week."

"Agreed. So...I don't want to make this sound weird but, do you think you could help me rebuild my armor? I mean, only if you have any materials left."

"What makes you think that I know how to build armor?"

"Well, I've never seen armor like that, and it's pretty obvious that none of it is exotic…"

I raised my hands in the air. "Ok, you got me. Guilty as charged. When I was in the AEA, they taught us how to perform basic maintenance on armor, so I used a few of those tricks, took a few risks, and made myself a new set."

"Then it's settled. Let's transmat this head, and get out of here," Arla concluded, standing up and looking at the sky for the ship.


	28. A Debt

Chapter 28

A Debt

We sat on the damp ground for a few more minutes before standing and dusting ourselves off. Currently, the ship was orbiting around the other side of the planet and would descend once it got within 7 miles of our position. At any rate, we couldn't do anything but wait for the time being. The giant portal was now as dark as its smaller clones, and dark rain clouds encroached even further, threatening to dump several inches worth of sulfuric acid on our heads. Arla and I moved down the hill's gentle slope and stood underneath a nearby land bridge. For such a fast ship, it sure was taking its time getting here.

The wind lightly stirred the dusty roads around us and caused my coattails as well as Arla's cape (or at least the tattered remnants of it) to whip around a little bit. Other than that, everything was deathly quiet and put me a little on edge. As soon as the Gate Lord went down, any Vex that may have remained abandoned the area without any further fight or hesitation. I checked my belt for all of my ammunition and weapons but only found the empty holster at my back. Then it occurred to me that I dropped the hand cannon during the fight. I looked at Arla propped up against one of the rocks holding the bridge. "I'll be right back. Forgot to pick up my weapon after I dropped it."

Her breathing was much slower now, but there was still a bit of weight to it. She was either in an extreme amount of pain or still exhausted after the firefight. "Might need that," she laughed between breaths. "I'll just be here resting." She sat down and leaned against a rock.

I walked away with a nod and proceeded to the spot I remembered dropping the gun. With the Gate Lord gone, I spotted its red and white color scheme pretty easily against the bare light brown of the dirt. As I bent down to grab it, several metallic _pings_ scattered at my feet. My edginess getting the better of me, I jumped back and fired out of pure instinct, but nothing was there, only the small capsules I put in the hand cannon. Holstering the gun, I started picking them up. "Everything alright?" Arla asked, her voice no longer fatigued.

"Yes. Everything's fine. I accidentally dropped some capsules and the noise startled me. You can rest easy for the moment," I reassured her.

"Well, if anything drastic happens, I'll be right here."

"Acknowledged." Still on one knee, I looked up and found myself staring at a someone's leg. Knowing immediately this wasn't Arla, I grabbed hold of it with one hand and yanked it out from whomever it was. I put my knee into the person's torso, my left forearm pinning their neck and head back, and pulled out my gun with my remaining hand. I pointed the weapon in whoever's face it was but retracted it when I realized who I was looking at. It was that stranger who called herself Athena. I put the gun away and helped her up.

"Must we always meet this way?" she asked with a laugh.

"Maybe if you didn't appear out of the blue," I retorted coldly.

Athena shrugged. "Can't help it. Just part of my job. Have you thought any about my proposition?"

My opinion had not changed. "I am not going to be your spy, but if you'd like to help me take out the Black Garden, maybe I'll consider it."

She laughed as if what I said was absolutely hilarious. "You? You think you're just going to waltz into the Black Garden and destroy it?" She slapped her knee a couple times. "That's probably the best thing I've heard in a couple months. I never really took you for the comedic type, but you may have just proven me wrong. Besides, nobody just walks into the closest guarded secret in the galaxy, but if you're so confident that you can win, be my guest."

"I don't plan on going in alone. That would be suicide. That's why I have a team."

She doubled over laughing again. "You mean that Awoken you drag along? Maximus you're too much. I'm getting a bit lightheaded." I rolled my eyes at the impossibility of that statement. "I'd hardly call her a Guardian let alone a worthy partner."

I chose not to respond to that comment. I had no business defending my choices to someone I barely know and do not trust at all. "Does that mean you'll join us?" I asked.

Her laughter ceased, and her posture straightened. "My path's my own. Sadly, I am not permitted to intervene with matters like yours. While I do wish for the Garden to perish, there are evils much darker than this one, but don't think that I won't be keeping an eye on you."

"Well then, I once again refuse to be your voice in the Tower. I told you I'd consider it if you went with us. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Now, you best vacate these premises before I forcibly remove you with a bullet."

Athena gave subtle chuckle. "Empty threats Maximus. Empty, empty threats. Besides, this isn't Vanguard or Tower property. This is neutral ground, no-man's land. If anything, it belongs to the Ishtar Collective, but unluckily for you, it no longer exists, so I may stay as long as I please."

"I'm done talking to you. If you're going to help, say something now because I have an important meeting with the Awoken very soon, and I can't be late do to some idle chit-chat." I turned and walked away, making sure to emphasize the swish in my cloak.

Just as I started walking, she grabbed my cloak and held it so as to prevent me from moving away. I turned around instinctively and brushed her hand off the cloth. She was looking at the ground and slowly looked up until she was staring into my eyes. She looked at me silently for several seconds before wincing suddenly as if she was in pain. Eventually, Athena returned her gaze, but she didn't look directly into my eyes, more like just above them. "There's a special aura about you that frankly intrigues me. Should you defeat the heart, meet me in your Tower's hangar." I nodded and turned away. "Maximus," she added in a surprisingly timid manner, "Don't fail. You're no good to me dead." I nodded once again and walked back over to where Arla was.

I heard the roar of rocket engines just as I found where she was laying down. I waved to the ship and both of us immediately were blinked into the ship. Once we were in orbit, I let Starco take the controls and moved to put my weapons away and shrug off the cloak. Just as I opened the door, I nearly walked right into Arla. She had changed into shorts and a tank top and was looking at me suspiciously with her arms folded and an eyebrow raised. "Who was she?" she demanded.

"Who are you talking about?" I deflected. "It was only us on Venus."

"And the Vex!" Starco hollered from the front of the ship.

"This is not your conversation!" I hollered back. "But yes. It was only us and the Vex."

"Maximus, I'm not stupid. You were gone far longer than you should have been…"

"Then why did you ask 'Who was she?'" I countered.

"You left your comms link on," she replied very matter-of-factly. 'Crap,' I thought. 'She now knows about Athena's offer.' I had to get off of this subject fast. I tried to move into the room and start working on repairing her armor, but she held her arm across the door. I ducked underneath it, and she shoved me back out of the doorway.

"I thought you wanted me to fix your armor," I said indignantly.

"You're not touching anyone's armor until you answer the question. Who was she? What was she doing there? And why were you talking to her?"

I knew then that any resistance was futile. Unlike most Humans and Awoken, Arla knew the difference between the truth and a lie, even when the answer came from an Exo. It was remarkable, but it also put me in an uncomfortable situation. "She calls herself Athena," I confessed. "but I don't think that's her real name. I don't know exactly who she is, but I do know that she's been watching me for a while now. Every time I try to get some answers out of her, she deflects the question back at me as if she's much more powerful than I am or ever will be. Recently, she's been trying to get me to be her eyes and ears within the Tower, but I find the idea preposterous and against everything I believe in."

"Then why did you humor the idea? You said, and I quote, 'I am not going to be your spy, but if you'd like to help me take out the Black Garden, maybe I'll consider it.'" She had me. I needed to monitor my comms channels better.

I sighed. "We need help," I said earnestly. "You can't seriously expect that only the two of us could kill the darkest being in the Solar System."

She shook her head in disapproval. "I honestly can't believe you actually listened to her. I mean we only a killed a Gate Lord. A flippin' GATE LORD! No Guardian has done that for the last 100 years. She's threatened by the prospect of the Tower becoming more powerful than her organization. That Athena person wants you to doubt yourself and submit to whatever she has to say. Judging by this conversation, you've let her have her way with you so far. Sometimes, you have to use some intimidation and maybe a little shotgun diplomacy. How do you think I got Lee under control?"

It was true. I could see Lee being totally out of control not only when he had a second chance at life but also had access to an almost unlimited wealth of resources and information. I stood silently, waiting for her to let me through, but she remained as a statue. "I answered your questions, so can I please get through? We don't have long before we get to the Reef, and you need to look presentable."

I tried to go through the doorway, but she put a hand on the center of my chest and stopped me. "One more question: Are you going to spy for her?"

"No," I responded without any hesitation.

She pulled back her hand and let me though. "I'm trusting you," she warned. I largely ignored it and started gathering the materials to reimagine her armor.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_2 hours later…_

I sat at the workbench in the room, pouring over Arla's armor, giving it that finishing touch before presenting it to her. Arla had actually fallen asleep in a nearby chair after about 30 minutes of watching my apply layers of smart fabric and paint. During the two hours or so I was working on the armor, Starco asked if he should launch us to the Reef, but I asked him to hold off until I finished. After that, he'd float into the room, check on my progress, ask the question and leave.

I gave the helmet one last wipe with the rag and sat back in my chair, pleased with my work. Arla asked for a simplistic design incorporating the red, purple, and black into the suit, and that's exactly what I did. Most of the armor was purple, but I had red running down the length of the arms, legs, and torso starting around the shoulders. Black accentuated the helmet and gauntlets. Despite its simplicity, there was a sort of elegance to it that I hoped she would appreciate. I neatly set the armor out on the bed behind me and tapped her on the shoulder. Just as I was going to see her reaction, I heard what sounded like a metallic clang emanate from the engine room.

"Starco," I called out. "Is there something wrong with the engine room?"

There was a short pause before he responded. "The sensors aren't picking up anything, but we do seem to have picked up some extra weight."

"You think it could be some condensation we collected while on the surface?" I asked, moving towards the door to the engine room, but stopping just before opening it. I listened closely, but the ringing did not repeat itself. I remained completely still and could hear heavy footfalls coming either from within the engine room or the room I'd just exited.

"The ship should have already disposed of that. The weight difference is much larger than anything some condensation would cause." There was a slight edge to his voice, as if he was nervous.

"No need to be nervous!" I joked. His only response was a slightly indignant sigh. I pushed the button to unlock the door and disengaged the safety lock. Once the door slid shut behind me, I walked over to one of the small holo-screens and swiped through some screens. As Starco predicted, the weight of the condensation within the main engines was minimal (32mg of water and 0.00g of Sulfuric Acid). I looked through other specs in the engine room, but nothing seemed out of the norm. Convinced there was nothing different there, I shut off the screen and walked down one of the main engines. The whirring of the engines was usually deafening, but since we were idling in orbit, everything was relatively quiet.

Engine 2 looked perfectly fine, and there was nothing, to my knowledge, extra within the chamber. I turned the corner to go to engine 1 and immediately saw the extra weight. Standing with a hand on her hip was Athena. Slightly taken aback by her sudden presence, I searched for something to say but came up with nothing. We simply stared at each other for several seconds as if the other was only an illusion and would disappear at any second. I finally gathered my thoughts. "You know, most of us enter the ship with permission," I said.

"Well, stay dead when we're killed." She walked past me and stood at the corner leading to the engine room's exit.

"What's with the sudden change of heart?" I probed.

Athena sighed. "There was nothing of the sort. Ultimately, I decided that you needed a third person to kill the Heart correctly."

"Well, next time you decide to join us last minute, try to tell me ahead of time."

"There won't _be_ a next time," she replied harshly.

"You got that right," a female voice echoed from around the corner. The voice was immediately followed by the click of a hand cannon hammer preparing to slam forward. I checked the holster on my back and found my weapon missing. Athena didn't even flinch at the threat. Instead, she grabbed Arla's arm, threw her over her shoulder, pinning her against the silver wall.

I rushed forward and pulled them off each other. I snatched my weapon and put it in its holster. "Hold up you two," I practically yelled. Arla backed off, angry flames flickering in her eyes and on the golden gun stashed at her belt.

"Who is _she_?" Arla pointed. "I don't mean your codename 'Athena.'" She made airquotes when she said the stranger's name.

"Who I am doesn't matter," Athena said confidently. "You must be Arla, that fiery Hunter that Maximus calls a teammate. How was the underground tunnel that you collapsed?" I could tell immediately that she was trying to incite something, and it was working. I wasn't about to have any of it.

"Athena, if you're going to cause a fight on _my_ ship, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

She scoffed and brushed my comment aside with a small laugh. "I wouldn't say that to someone who is far superior to the likes of you."

Now she was trying to start something with me. I pulled out my gun and pushed it into Athena's face; I was tired of her crap. I needed to know if she was for us or against us. "I'm tired of your crap Athena!" I shouted. "You're either going to work with us or you're going to leave. Pick a side and stay on it!" Silence ensued. "I haven't had to space anyone to date, and I don't plan on starting today. We have an important fight ahead of us, and if we are going to stand the smallest chance of succeeding, everyone needs to be on the same page. Arla and I get along just fine in the field, but we keep butting heads, so get with the program or get out!" Arla's face was of pure shock at what I'd said while Athena only kept a straight and emotionless face. "Starco, set a course for the Reef. We leave immediately!" I holstered my weapon and stormed out of the engine room.

I flopped into the pilot's chair and rubbed my temples. "Gosh," I muttered to myself. "It'll be a miracle if we survive getting to the Reef." The correct coordinates punched in, I activated the warp drive and gunned the accelerator.

Other than the engine's steady hum, the entire ship was dead silent. Arla and Athena had strapped themselves into opposing chairs and looked out at the colorful lights that danced as we raced towards the Reef. With time to kill, I shut my eyes and deactivated until we arrived.

I restarted just as the ship violently deccelerated, the sudden jolt causing me to push the restraints to their limit. Just as I recovered, the ship swerved left to avoid an asteroid. Afterwards, the ship leveled out, and the cockpit was bathed in the purple characteristic of the Reef. In the distance, I could make out the Vestian Outpost and the hundreds of fighters that made up the Queen's guard. "Sorry about that," Starco apologized. "In case you missed it, we almost smacked into the asteroid Pyrrhus 91A. We should be arriving in a few minutes."

Nodding in acknowledgment, I spun my chair around and looked Arla and Athena in the eyes, silently warning them not to step out of line. Arla seemed to understand immediately, while Athena continued staring into space. I glowered at her for a moment but received no response. I gathered my things and awaited landing.

As we approached, I steadily grew uneasy. I did not look forward to facing Uldren again after I humiliated him in front of his Queen and sister. No doubt both of them harbored some sort of negative feelings against me, but I could live with that. I'd rather someone's hate than their pity. Being an Exo, I hadn't really received much pity, and I wasn't going to start looking for it today. Besides, if someone hates me enough to do something about it, bullets do a lot of talking for me. However, I would try to lay off of them unless they started to threaten either myself or Arla. I silently hoped that they'd gotten all of their harbored hatred for her defection, but I also silently doubted that they had gotten over it, especially Uldren.

A few minutes later, the ship landed, and I dropped the ramp immediately. Arla stood to my left and Athena to my right. Without any sort of delay, a squad of Awoken soldiers sprinted into the ship with their guns drawn and aimed at us. "Hands where I can see them!" one of them screamed. I slowly raised my hands, and the others complied shortly thereafter. Two of the five soldiers kept their guns trained on our heads, while the other three relieved us of all our weapons. With that, they lowered their weapons and marched us into the corridor leading to the Queen's Court.

The door slammed loudly behind us. I expected there to be guards lining the path to her throne, but I didn't see anything of the sort. At the same time, I knew we were not just going to be left alone with the Queen. I could feel their hidden eyes staring holes in all three of us. We started walking her way, our footsteps creepily echoing down the hallway, only increasing my anxiety. We entered the throne room silently and bowed. Two armed guards materialized from nowhere and blocked our exit. Two figures moved out of the shadows next to the Queen's throne. "Fallen!" I yelled, making a grab for a guard's pistol. I yanked it out of the holster but didn't get much farther. The guard disarmed me as quickly as I had stolen the pistol.

"It's afraid," Uldren mocked from across the room. He chuckled menacingly and arrogantly stepped toward us. "I see you're alive, but the bigger question is whether or not you've completed our errand. I mean, the best warriors know exactly when a well-timed withdraw is necessary."

"Oh, we slayed a Gate Lord," I replied confidently.

"Really?" he mocked again. "Then I would like to see its head." Starco obliged and transmatted the head in front of Uldren. He seemed taken aback momentarily but recovered. Making sure to embellish the movement, Uldren took out his knife and presented it in the air for a moment before tearing into the head before him. He hacked and sawed at the head, making sure to emphasize each swing of the knife. We watched him silently, remaining inert while we stood. Meanwhile, the Queen sat with her legs crossed and her head propped on a hand, almost as if she was bored with the entire situation. It was almost like she'd seen something like this before.

I shifted my gaze from Uldren to the Queen. Paying more attention, I realized that she wasn't bored at all; she was fighting sleep! I moved back to Uldren. Placing the knife back in its sheath, he shoved his hand into the Gate Lord's head and yanked out a circular object that looked like some sort of eye. The "eye" glowed bright red for a few seconds until it became a dull gray. "Dead," Uldren mocked. "Looks like your efforts we fruitless after all Guardian."

The Queen shifted in her chair, so she would be more alert and attentive. "The Queen would like to consult her brother for a moment." Uldren leered at us a moment longer and then walked over to his sister upon the throne.

They spoke in hushed voices that none of us could really hear. "What do you think they're planning?" Arla whispered.

"They're deciding on a way to kill us indirectly," Athena guessed. "If I could get that piece in Uldren's hand, I know how to reactivate it."

"It can't possibly be that simple," Arla responded.

"You're not wrong, but that's where the fun begins."

Uldren leaned up from his sister's throne, nodding. He put the peice of the Gate Lord in his pocket. "That's good," he said. "That's very good." He turned to us just as Arla and Athena stopped talking, clapping his hands once with a ridiculous smile on his face.. "Well, it seems that you Guardians have some use to us after all. We need an anomaly on Mars investigated and secured, and you three seem like the perfect fit for the job."

"Told you," Athena muttered.

Uldren glared at her momentarily. He walked forward arrogantly. "And who might this be? I don't remember you from our previous encounter. Maximus, are you just taking anyone who wants to come with you? I certainly did not expect _you _ to pick up this sraggler."

I stepped in. "My party is my own. Now, lay off Athena, or we may just end up like the last time we were here." I summoned an orb in my hand just visible enough to let Uldren know I was serous.

"Sadly my dear Maximus, your threat holds no weight. If anything, you're in more danger of being backstabbed by her than me. You see, you're third party member here is one of the Agents of the Nine. More specifically, she's Dea-01, a relentless warrior that 'helps' Guardians but really winds up killing them through her errands or by finishing the deed herself when they refuse to do her bidding. Pretty risky move Dea. I thought you were smarter than that. Athena looked away indignantly, probably looking for some sort of clever retort.

Arla turned towards her with her mouth agape. I kept staring at Uldren. The news came as no shock to me. Honestly, I'd suspected that Athena, no Dea, had been hiding something from me when she gave me her codename. While I wasn't exactly sure if having a codename was a very common thing to do nowadays, I knew that "Athena" had to correlate to her somehow. Now it explicitly did. Honestly, I'd take having a powerful ally, and if she decided to turn against Arla and me, then we'll kill her or take her with us. In the meantime though, I decided to act as if the news was a total shock.

Dea moved her gaze back to Uldren. "Who is to say I haven't changed my ways?"

Uldren rolled his eyes and turned around, pointing his finger in the air as if to make a point. "Exos don't change. They're robots and nothing but. The only reason either of you walk around 'freely' is because of a coding malfunction, scrambled commands. If you were to get looked at by our technicians, then you would revert back to your servant-like ways."

I ignored his comment. I knew I was much more than just lines of code and commands. At least, I think I am. What if…? Anger began to boil. He was trying to get underneath my skin (metal?) again, and it was working.

My mind raced while Uldren stepped towards me with his hands clasped behind his back. He waved a hand in front of me. "Hello!" he mocked. "Is Maximus in there? Because he has some important business to attend to." I snatched his hand out of the air and clamped down on it. I met his eyes and silently warned him of his current course of actions. Using his other hand, he grabbed a pistol from his waist and pushed it against my head. "Unhand me or pay the price!" he commanded, fury burning in his eyes. "Now!" He pushed the gun's barrel even harder against my head.

Mara Sov was suddenly on her feet. "If the Queen's brother cannot control himself, action will be taken against him. These are our guests and shall be treated as such."

"Lousy guests!" Uldren shouted. "Guards!" The Queen intervened immediately. "Stand down!" A few tense moments passed with Uldren remaining motionless. "You too Uldren." He kept his gun against my head for a moment more before releasing it and tossing it aside. I then relinquished his arm. He cradled it for a moment, shooting daggers at me with his eyes. "Give them what they desire and let them be on their way." Uldren scowled for a moment but eventually dug into his pocket, tossing the piece my way harshly. I caught it in one hand just before Starco transmatted it.

Making sure to keep a cold stare on me, Uldren retreated to the steps leading to his sister's throne. The Queen locked eyes with all three of us. "I have shown you benevolence. I expect that when I need your assistance, you and the might of your Traveler will come to my aid." I was confused by the comment as they seemed to have things pretty much in control here.

We stood stone-faced. "She's saying you owe us," Uldren taunted. "So make sure you're listening when we call." Mara nodded and guards instantly appeared behind us and wordlessly escorted us back to our ship.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The entire ship was dead silent as the colors of warp space danced around us. I sat in a relaxed position in the pilot's chair whilst Arla and Dea sat in opposite chairs. Arla wore a clear scowl whilst Dea continued to stare blankly in my direction, obviously trying to not look at Arla. I wondered what was going through her mind. She could very well be plotting both of our deaths because we knew too much for our own good, or she could be thinking of a valid explanation in order to make herself seem innocent. Maybe Dea would be smart and just keep her mouth shut until we got to Mars, reached the coordinates the Queen sent us, and killed the Heart.

Dea shifted in her seat. "That could have gone better," she commented. I was wrong. Both of us ignored her comment and continued our respective tasks. "I understand if you don't want to talk to me. I deceived you and disrespected your trust, but let me justify myself…"

"You do not need to justify your actions," Arla muttered. "What you to do is promise that you won't shoot us in the back because we 'know too much.' We are about to go into a warzone clouded by darkness, and we can't have double agents making our lives difficult."

Dea stayed quiet for a moment. "Hmm...Cloak and dagger has never really been my thing."

"Oh I'll show you cloak and dagger!" Arla jumped up from her seat and pinned Dea against the wall, holding her sharpened knife at her throat. Honestly, I never really cared for Dea, so I really didn't care if Arla sliced her or not. I did care that a body of 8 powerful beings would probably be all over my back and the Tower's. Figuring that, I grabbed the Uldren's old pistol that I kept on the console next to me, turned the chair around, and shot the blade in a fraction of a second. Arla immediately cupped her hand and shifted in murderous stare in my direction. "What was that for?!"

"Like you said. We don't need agents making our lives difficult."

"I said 'double agents,' and that's exactly what she is."

"I've found no evidence that Dea is working for the enemy. In fact, quite the opposite."

"You cannot be serious…!" Arla exclaimed.

"However, I need to know if I can trust you as we are about to enter a place that is not as well established as Earth, the Moon, and Venus."

Dea scoffed. "I thought I made it clear that you could trust me. IF ANYTHING, it should be me questioning if I can trust either of you. Only one of the Nine has somewhat consistent contact with the Guardians in the Tower, and it seems to me that he's taken for granted. Kick me out and I can make sure that the Tower's supply of exotics will come to an immediate halt."

"A Guardian is more than just a gun."

"I beg to differ. Without Exotics, many Guardians would be without true quality weapons, and I highly doubt that Omolon and SUROS could be able to keep up with the sudden demand because the Guardians who gather their supplies are too busy being dead."

"You fail to answer my question."

"If you want to continue protecting your Traveler, you are going to have to trust me regardless."

Arla folded her arms. "Or we could space you right now…"

"And kill us all? Neither of you can be that stupid. Spacing me would not just kill all of us, but ultimately all of the Guardians on your Tower and in your City."

I intervened. "Nobody is spacing anybody! This is _my ship_ and I decide when the doors open and when they close. Right now, they're staying closed until we get to Mars." I calmed myself down partially for a few moments."

Arla stared at me with surprise written all across her face. Dea backed her up and pushed her back into her chair, placing her knife back in its holster calmly yet with lingering hostility. Arla recovered a short time later and stood back up, but this time she was a little more collected, at least on the outside. "You said that we would kill everyone by killing all of us. Why?"

Dea sighed. "While I have not seen too much from the likes of you," she gave Arla a cold stare. "Maximus is one of the most promising Guardians I've seen in a very long time, and believe you me, I've been fighting this Darkness for a long time."

"Kiss up," Arla muttered almost inaudibly. Dea apparently ignored it, but seemingly satisfied with her input, she sat down. I spun around in my chair, choosing to say nothing to Dea's comment. I didn't really trust her statement the more I thought about it. She wasn't in a very good position at that moment, her cover having just been blown and my ability to eliminate her at any moment. I leaned forward in my seat and stared at the hyperspace and its dazzling colors. Now that I've had a little more prolonged time with her, I've observed Dea has a hot head and a short temper, a recipe for disaster in the battlefield. Channeled anger is good, but outright fury is nothing good for either side.

Then again, Arla has seemed like the more violent one. If the situation hadn't been so pressing, I would have taken Arla back to the Tower for a few days and told Dea to leave for the moment. Hopefully by the time the two had cooled off, Lee would be fully recovered and able to join us instead of Dea. Unfortunately, Lee isn't better, and I have two ticking time bombs sitting behind me, threatening to be at each other's throats at any second. While Arla was dangerous, Dea was much more of a threat. She's hiding more behind that metal face, and while I am curious to know, I don't feel that prodding her for information would be a very tactful idea. One thing I'm almost certain of is that she's hiding is how strong she is, or, in better terms, the lack thereof. Her armor doesn't look thick at all if memory serves me correctly, only a few thin centimeters or an inch of padded protection and then metallic flesh.

A thought struck me. She's only mortal. If she dies, then that's it for the one they called "Dea." That means one of two things: she really is far stronger than either of us, or she has a means of escape regardless of the situation. I quickly struck the second option out. A Ghost's transmat is supposedly the most powerful means of transporting something, and the Vanguard have nothing on any more powerful technologies.

"You doubt my strength?"

I looked up from my thoughts. Dea continued. "You both do. I can sense it. That shocks me Maximus that after all we've been through, you still question my skill. How about this: when we get to the surface, both of you fight me in hand-to-hand. Anyone can fire a gun, but only the dextrous can immobilize someone using only the hands. And I won't hold back this time Maximus."

Once again, regardless of whether or not she could read my thoughts, I found myself questioning her credibility. If those previous times weren't her putting her best foot (fist?) forward, then I may be in for a little trouble. At the same time, she could be bluffing…

"I guarantee you; I'm not bluffing. I can and will put both of your sorry butts on the ground just like I did to the others to get into the Nine." Her confidence was growing, that just made me want it to be her downfall even harder.

I couldn't keep playing moderator forever and showing her up would be just the way to prove my point.

The ship suddenly braked hard and Mars' rusted surface loomed in the distance. I knew the Cabal probably were waiting for us, but then again, it'd been almost too long since something tried to kill us.


	29. Bruises

Chapter 29

Bruises

I landed heavily on the Martian soil, red dust billowing up in clouds and attaching themselves to my robe. Two more thumps, one quiet and one just as loud as mine, kicked up equal amounts of dust that slowly settled back down. As expected, this sector of Mars was devoid of any life, friendly or hostile. Rocks of varying sizes dotted the dune-covered landscape while tall, dilapidated skyscrapers loomed in the distance. The ship's engines whined just before it sped off into orbit, the orange flames standing out in the night.

Dea stepped forward and pointed at the buildings in the distance. "That's where we're heading. In those buildings, the Nine's scouts have detected a Vex energy source that we could use to revive the key," she said.

"I sense a 'but' coming," I commented. Arla checked her weapons and walked not too far away, mysteriously examining some rock formation. I moved to Dea's left side as I spoke.

"But...There are going to be Cabal shooting at us once we enter the city." I didn't know much about the Cabal, but I predicted they weren't much more organized than the Fallen. From what Starco's told me about them (which hasn't been much), they're brutish and violent, products of an imperialistic empire bent on making the universe theirs.

Dea stopped suddenly. "You're not wrong Maximus," she stated. I forgot that she could sense my thoughts. I honestly want to know how, but I highly doubt she would actually show or teach me given our history of butting heads, meaningful or not. "The Cabal are definitely barbaric, but they're more organized than you give them credit for. Bulky Phalanxes carry massive shields that take incoming fire while they deal from around the shield. Legionaries come in from behind them and use their weapons and jet packs to outflank and overwhelm you. Smaller and more agile Psions really don't pose much threat, but they play mind games."

I nodded. "How long will it take to get there?"

"It depends on how many times we get caught in the Exclusion Zones."

"Hopefully none," I replied. "But I'm sure we can handle them if we encounter any resistance. After all, we took care of business at the Wall when the Fallen tried to push through."

Dea placed a hand on her hips. "There were thousands of Guardians fighting that battle. Here, there is only us, no support from either of our sides and I'm not picking up any comms arrays in our area."

"Could we relay messages through the ship?" Arla suggested from a distance.

Dea thought about it for a moment. "Unless you can get that ship to hover over us invisible and silent, I don't think we can."

"Yeah, that's not quite feasible," I said.

"That's what I thought," Dea commented. She pulled out a small cylindrical device and placed it on the ground. Immediately, a map showing the terrain popped up with a small green dot showing where the device was located in relation to the map. The city Dea had pointed at earlier was marked as "Ares' Haven," definitely an interesting name for a city or perhaps it was a code name. "Let's see," Dea said to herself, flicking through the map at the same time. "It looks like we're going to pass through 3 Zones; one of which will be heavily guarded as it leads right to the subway system we need to get into."

Arla's voice crackled on the local comms. "So we're going to have to get caught either way and have an entire legion chasing after us?"

"Seems like it," Dea stated.

Arla's method struck me as odd. "Why did you use the comms when you were standing right next to us?"

"Don't worry," she assured me. "I'm still close by. Just have to get something out before we get on with our mission. Maximus, if you could take a couple steps to the left that would be great." I hesitated and looked for her to the left and right. I didn't see her. Turning around to see behind me, I saw her flying through the air with a fist pulled back. I tried to move back, but my foot had sunk into the sand and only allowed me to fall onto my butt. Dea saw me fall and looked back just as Arla's fist connected with her helmeted face.

Arla rolled away from the impact and stood back up effortlessly while Dea recovered from the blow. She shook her head and stood back up. "Well," she started calmly. "I guess I deserved that. Let's start the sparring now, but don't think you'll get another free shot like that."

Dea adjusted her helmet and unstrapped her weapon, tossing it over to where I sat. Arla did likewise but just tossed her things to the side and clenched her hands into fists. Despite Arla's aggressive stance, Dea remained largely passive yet prepared for any move Arla was going to attempt. They both stared each other down, waiting for the other to move so she could counter it, but both remained motionless. Dea's eyes glowed brightly behind the mask of her helmet while Arla's glowed dimly behind hers.

They stood at a stalemate for the longest 30 seconds until Arla took a step forward. Dea did the same but to the right. They moved toward each other again calmly and deliberately without any wasted movements or energy. A few steps later, they were barely within striking distance of each other. I glanced at the clock on the top right of my HUD; 3 minutes had passed without a single strike between the two. For such a heated relationship between the two, neither seemed to look forward to hitting one another, aside from Arla's admittedly cheap shot earlier. In spite of that, she seemed to be taking a much more cautious approach to someone expecting to get hit and have to avoid it.

Suddenly, Arla threw her arm out, intending to place a forceful jab at Dea's thinly protected neck, but Dea immediately grabbed her arm, twisted Arla around, and placed a boot in her back. Arla picked herself up from the sand and stood back up unaffected. Dea charged and lashed out with a fist; a fist the Huntress easily avoided, sticking out a leg to trip her adversary, but Dea leapt over it as if it had been part of her plan. They exchanged multiple punches that either were dodged or blocked. Arla drew back a little, her body sucking in hard breaths from the exertion. She waited for Dea to come forward before she kicked with her left foot. Dea caught it as if it were nothing, but just as she did so, Arla raised her other foot and pivoted on her captured foot. Using it as a feint and simultaneous plant, Arla spun out of Dea's grasp, kicking her across the face with the right foot before landing smartly on the ground.

Dea fell to the ground in a momentary daze but recovered almost as soon as she hit the ground. Arla launched forward with a fist raised high and fell into a slide as Dea sidestepped the blow. However, the feint wasn't going to work as second time, as the Huntress received a brutal elbow to the head, causing her to somersault onto her face. Arla slowly got off the ground whilst her adversary glowered over her. She eventually stood up and raised her fists again, preparing to strike. The right fist flew forward into the place Dea had just been, however, she was no longer there. Instead, Dea grabbed Arla's arm and heaved the Huntress over her shoulder and firmly planted her into the ground.

Arla rose to her unsteady feet and made one last press. She tottered around for a minute, breathing heavily, but ultimately steadied herself and went on the defensive. With carefully calculated steps, Dea moved toward Arla. Again, they stood in close-quarters predicting the other's next move for several long seconds. Just as Arla raised her forearms to guard a punch, Dea swept Arla off her legs, and simultaneously hammered a fist into her chest as she fell. The blow echoed through the air like a gunshot. Everything just hung in the air for several seconds; the tension, anger, and determination remained motionless.

I set the Multi-Tool and sidearm on the ground next to me and stood up ready to fight. Arla remained on the ground, sucking in air from the small crater her impact created. I stood across from Dea, fists raised. "Hey," she called out. "No palm orbs. Keep it pure hand-to-hand."

"Right," I said, a hint of disbelief in my voice. "You don't do anything sneaky either."

"What can I say? I'm good at what I do. You won't even know if I try something."

'That's what I'm afraid of,' I thought. I didn't feel like dying again; it was coming too close to being a habit. I pushed that thought out of my mind and focused on the feet suddenly flying my direction. I rolled to the right and out of the kick's trajectory. I retaliated with a kick of my own as she was turning around. "I thought you said no cheap shots!" I yelled, not caring if she got off the ground before I attacked again. She avoided a powerful punch by using a roll of her own. Both of us now standing, I refocused myself and quenched my anger. Some continued to burn within me, but I could channel it where I needed it to go now.

Dea sent a flurry of punches at my face and torso, but none of them hit me either because I blocked it or outright avoided it. Another flurry came my way; I could steadily feel myself backing up, giving into exactly what she wanted. I ducked underneath another blow and sidestepped the follow up. I returned with my own attempt at an uppercut. Instead, she countered and backhanded me with an armored hand. My HUD blurred momentarily from the hit as I hit the ground, but I got back up nonetheless. She resumed where she left off with a left hook. I moved my forearm in the way, but immediately received a boot to my chest, causing me to take a few steps backward. I looked up just in time to see that she was coming at me with another kick. This time I grabbed her leg at the calf and whirled her around, slamming her into the Martian sand without any restraint. LIke Arla, she laid there for a second before moving anything. She slowly gathered herself up but only went so far as a sitting position.

Assuming she was done, I walked over and extended a hand to help her up. She grabbed the hand with both of hers and pulled, sending me face-first on the ground. Dea kneeled on my back and wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me up in a very unnatural position. I desperately threw one of my arms back to snag something of hers and turn the tides in my favor. I could feel my torso stretching and my back contracting in a strange and uncomfortable manner. I strained to reach her but just couldn't no matter how hard I tried. In a last chance effort, I pushed off the ground with my left hand and successfully flipped us onto the ground where I was on top. I flicked my head back and smashed the back of my helmet on the front of hers. Immediately, the hand holding my neck released, and I scrambled to my feet. Seizing my opportunity, I put a knee on the center of her chest, pinning her head and neck back with an arm. "Concede!" I demanded.

"I...I concede," she admitted quietly. "You got me." I felt like she was letting me win. I mean she _was_ in a bad position that she probably could not have successfully gotten out of, but Dea didn't strike me as the type to surrender. Despite my suspicions, I stood up but, remembering my lesson about extending my hand to help her up, I took a few steps back to allow her ample room to recover.

"Not going to help me up?" Dea prompted from a sitting position. I didn't move until she extended her hand. "I promise I won't flip you onto your back again." I slowly grabbed the hand and helped her up, remaining suspicious the entire time. She stood up stiffly, but there was no obvious sign of injury until she started walking...or rather falling onto one knee."

"Are you alright?" I asked, grabbing a hand and helping lean her against a nearby boulder.

"Nothing a little shutdown won't help," she admitted, the response taking me aback a little bit. "By the way, your victory brought you first watch."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why me?" I asked quickly. There was no response; just the fading of her eyes as she shut down for the night. I looked at Arla's crumpled form not too far away and decided to move her against the rock. Her breathing was much steadier now, but I had no doubt that she would be sore in many places when she woke up. Of course, Dea would likely feel a similar soreness but too a much lesser extent, likely a dull ache.

I found a high rock and sat down, carefully scanning the surroundings for any signs of the Cabal. Seeing nothing, I set the Multi-Tool next to me and relaxed a little bit, but as time passed, pain steadily grew in my face and torso. My arms ached unrelentingly. Despite its lack of comfort, the burning pain countered the frosty cold of the Martian air desperately trying to permeate my suit. Starco flashed in next to me, the most visible part of him was the glowing blue eye.

A question came to my mind that Starco could possibly answer. "You think that this war will ever end?"

Starco jumped back a little, seemingly surprised by the question. "Thinking of quitting already? You haven't even been a Guardian for a year."

I laughed. "No, no, no. I don't plan on quitting anytime before the war with this Darkness is over. I want your opinion on if it will ever end or not."

"Well if you think about it Maximus, war is one of those constants throughout Earth's history. Early humans competed with Neanderthals, Barbarians fought the Romans, Cells of extremists fought against the well-organized and militarized West just for religion. Then the Fallen and Hive tried to invade. Really it isn't a question of when this war will end; it's a question of when the next war will start."

"When do you think the next one will start?"

"Honestly, I don't know, but the Darkness is definitely deeper than the Vex. There are rumors that the Awoken have to quell some sort of uprising and that there is some sort of Hive deity in our system. To me, it sounds like the hardest battles are yet to come."

"You can say that again. You think that's why the Awoken were so on edge both times we've been to the Reef."

"From the Cryptarch's databanks, that's probably a safe assumption, but you know the saying about assuming things. I can't imagine why they would be stressed though. The Awoken have a track record of never taking on anyone they are not confident they cannot beat."

"Well, what if they're fighting someone they previously conquered, but this time they're fighting back much harder?" It was a ludicrous suggestion, given that the conqueror would be idiotic not to keep an eye on the remnants of a group they previously demolished. I shifted on the rock.

"You're not suggesting that the House of Wolves revolted are you?"

"It's possible. Many saw the evolution of the Exo as a sort of revolt in its own respects. Who's to say that the Wolves bit the hand that fed them. Enough about speculative matters though. Let's talk Cabal."

"I thought that Dea's brief description was concise and accurate. They're brutes focused on exterminating other worlds. Enough said."

"That's not what I meant."

"Well then, could you be a little more specific?"

"Dea said that we were going to purposely spring one of their traps. Are we?"

Starco tilted down for a moment but popped up shortly thereafter. "It looks like that map wasn't lying. Vanguard imagery shows three Cabal Exclusion bulkheads between here and Ares' Haven, and all of them lead the most direct routes to the city. It looks like we'll have to spring one. I honestly don't have a clue about what will happen when we alert them to our presence, but I have a feeling that it won't be good. What scares me the most is the fact that no Guardians have gone to this part of Mars in years."

"A little pioneering is fine by me."

"Last time it nearly killed us," Starco retorted.

"Killed us again," I corrected. "Besides, we're alive now, so just chill out and enjoy the moment."

"I think I already am," Starco said, starting to sound worried. "It's about -30." He suddenly disappeared. "Ah, that's much better," he said from the comm systems within the helmet.

"You're ridiculous," I said with a laugh. Something about Starco's previous information struck me as odd. "You said we only had to spring one right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, why do we only have to spring one? There's three between...oh. She wants us to purposely get captured doesn't she?"

"It's the quickest way between here and Ares' Haven."

"What if they're not going to take prisoners and just execute us all on site?"

"You underestimate them. The Cabal are brutish, but they know they have a bargaining chip when they see one. And no, I'm not referring to us or Arla. Finding one of the Nine is hard enough, capturing one of them is unheard of. Once they've dealt her, or she proves no longer useful, that's when they'll kill us. "

"Delightful," I said sarcastically. I shifted my thoughts to my fireteam. "How's Arla doing? That was a pretty hard knock she took against Dea."

"Hard doesn't even begin to describe the sort of hit she took. According to my scans of her, there's deep-tissue bruising on her torso and back with lighter bruising on her arms and legs. When she wakes up, its going to hurt her to move, but we honestly can't just sit here for a day or two while everyone heals. She shouldn't have started that before the mission was over."

"I don't blame her though. Dea has been getting on her nerves as well as mine from the moment she snuck onto the ship."

"Yeah, Stargazer has been pretty against her as well. My guess is that she had something to do with Arla's decision to attack."

"No," a soft voice called from a distance. "That was all Arla." Stargazer floated our way and stopped over my shoulder. "However, I do agree that the decision was foolish, but she attacked anyway. Look at her now."

"You could have initiated an emergency shutdown and had Maximus restrain her," Starco suggested.

"Hold up," I responded. "Leave me out of this." I placed both of my arms behind me and leaned back, looking at Phobos' form covering part of the night sky. Stargazer and Starco continued talking, but I paid them no mind. As per usual, Dea intentionally didn't tell us something about springing one of these Cabal traps. The more I thought about it; the more I got the feeling that she'd tried something like this before and failed.

Suddenly, something red flickered on the circular radar, dead ahead. I held up my hand, and both Ghosts disappeared almost simultaneously. I snatched the Multi-Tool from its place on the rock and scanned the horizon. Nothing there. The red flickered again, much closer now, forming a rounded pentagonal shape in the radar. I looked around again but still saw nothing except the semi-darkness of the Martian night. I stared down the scope, trying to find some moving shape moving our way.

That's when I saw them. Four large, shadowy figures lumbering slowly towards our position. Two seemed to have some sort of lumpy shape attached to them. My immediate thought was a shield. Another looked much broader compared to the others and perhaps a bit taller. This one was definitely moving a tad slower than the other, but it likely made up for it by being the bullet sponge of the group. The last figure looked plain compared to the other silhouettes; it was still an intimidating figure, but it did not look as heavily armored and did not carry a shield.

Trying to avoid their detection, I slid down the rock and peered from its right side. Still keeping a close eye on them, I tried to radio Arla and Dea but received no response. Multiple times I tried, but neither of them responded to my calls. I was on my own. I checked my clip and prepared a Scatter Grenade.

The Cabal flicked on flashlights attached to their helmets, making the scenery behind them even darker than before. It also highlighted their large bodies, thick armor, and weaponry. I was right about the shields; they looked dense and impenetrable.

They swung their lights multiple directions, checking the area for any signs of life besides themselves. They methodically moved closer and closer to where I lay in hiding and where Arla and Dea lay dead to the world around them and the encroaching danger. The plain one, my helmet marked it as a Legionary, turned and placed his light directly on Dea's deactivated form. It raised its weapon and its guard. I could hear their quiet grunts as they communed with each other. The pair of shield-bearers, marked Phalanxes, moved forward first with the Legionary behind them. However, the last Cabal remained behind and swept around its area.

I shifted behind the rock, and the light immediately illuminated the boulder,casting a cold, bright whiteness against the red of the sand and black of night. I expected heavy footsteps, but the only noise present was a short whirring followed by multiple _plunks_. Yellow lights rocketed into the air, stabilized, and suddenly turned towards the rock. "Run!" Starco shouted.

I tossed my grenade in the Centurion's direction and blinked away just as the salvo of missiles pummeled the ground, leaving a black crater in the red sand. The other three turned away from Dea dnd Arla, shooting at me and charging my direction. I pulled the trigger four or five times as I strafed left, a couple slamming into the Legionary and the rest bouncing harmlessly off the Phalanxes' shields. I blinked away from a shower of plasma fire. I took cover behind another boulder closer to Dea and Arla. I leaned out and fired a few more times in the direction of the Phalanxes and the hurt Legionary. They started backing away closer to where my allies lay incapacitated. The Legionary leaned down, while the Phalanxes planted their shields. Red light suddenly erupted behind them and shot into the sky.

"They're signaling transport!" Starco cried. "We need to get over there now!"

"Easier said than done," I commented, but I had to try. No sooner had I started running when the ground exploded beneath me, launching me into the air. I gained control of my low flight and pointed my fall at one of the Phalanxes. Carbon dioxide wind whistled as I pierced it. Gunshots showered the air around me as I darted towards the leftmost Phalanx. I snagged my sidearm from its holster and landed just beyond them. Immediately upon landing, I spun on my heel and unloaded several bullets into the first Phalanx before either of them could respond. Just as it was falling limply, I punched it out of the way and slid beneath its shield, hoping to use it to my own advantage. However, upon feeling its huge amount of weight despite the lower gravity of Mars, I knew that it was slowly becoming my prison.

My feet slid back in the sand as I struggled to keep the shield from knocking me over. I felt several shots batter the front of the shield, pushing me back even further. The shield tilted back a little more. I shifted my hands higher up on the shield and pushed harder. It moved back to where it started just as more shots crashed against the front. I was slowly losing my battle with the shield and could feel my hands steadily losing their hold. Suddenly, my footing faltered.

My right foot slid in the shifting sand, collapsing the shield on top of me. It pinned me on my back with my right foot protruding from the bottom while one arm was bent a bit awkwardly, keeping the heavy shield from smashing my helmet in. I squirmed beneath it to position my hands firmly on the shield. I could hear the heavy footsteps of either the Centurion or the remaining Phalanx coming my way. Defeated by the shield, I stopped struggling to get it off me and awaited the Cabal to stop.

A bright light illuminated the ground around me as whatever was standing above me halted. Suddenly, the shield was torn away and a powerful hand snatched me forcefully from the sand. It jerked me around, trying to decide whether to shoot me to bits or throw me into one of the boulders. I seized its moment of indecision and clutched a grenade, smashing it on the hand. Sparks of purple immediately sprouted from within, and it dropped me like I was made of fire. Wasting no time, I leapt into the air and fired a massive Nova Bomb at the Centurion. It was gone one contact but the guard near Arla and Dea was just out of the vortex's range.

Back on the ground, I snatched up my sidearm and faced the remaining Phalanx. It stood just in front of where Dea and Arla lay, steadfast and uncompromising. We stared at each other for a moment, just enough time for the flare above us to stop its beacon of light. The Cabal raised its shield and banged its gun against it, taunting me to come forward. I ignored the gesture and slowly moved my aim from the barely visible head over to the arm thrusting a gun on the side of the shield. I squeezed the trigger and sent multiple arc bolts screaming towards its arm. It quickly pulled the arm back and the shots deflected off the shield. Despite that plan's lack of success, I strafed right, trying to get behind it, but it kept the angle true to my position. Every shot I fired bounced off the heavy shield.

I nearly ran into a rock but stopped myself just before crashing headlong. I mantled over it and turned back to the Cabal just in time to roll under a a shot aimed at my head. Using the roll to stop my momentum, I took aim at its legs, but it faltered just before I fired. Suddenly, the shield and the attached creature fell forward awkwardly with a silhouetted figure pulling something out of its head. I rushed over expecting Dea, but instead, it was Arla trying to pull her knife out of the Phalanx's head. She grunted in pain and exertion but failed to dislodge the knife. "Hold up, hold up," I said, intervening. "Just sit back down. I'll get it." She said nothing but relaxed her grip on the knife and sat back down, holding her chest and grunting in pain the entire time. Arla was hurting but sadly we didn't have time to just sit here. Everything was dark now, but I located the knife and easily pulled it out. I tossed it hilt-first at Arla. She quickly wiped it off and pushed it back into its sheath, continued clutching her chest, and knocked her head back against the rock.

The roar of engines disturbed the night air as three Cabal ships surrounded us from above, guns from infantry units on board pointed in our direction. Spotlights rained down on the area, blinding us with their white lights. Dea suddenly materialized in front of me, throwing an arm across my chest. "Ghosts, retract all weapons. Maximus, don't fight. This is our way in," she said quietly. I started to speak in objection, thinking we could take them, but the weight of my weapons and ammunition quickly disappeared, Starco's agreeance that we were outgunned. A loudspeaker attached to the ship shouted a bunch of instructions in their garbled language, but I didn't need a translator to know what they meant. Dea and I raised our hands with their palms open as we slowly sunk to our knees.


	30. Final Steps

Chapter 30

Final Steps

The Cabal tossed me into my cell. Normally, it would have taken a few guards to actually get me into it, let alone keep me in it, but this time it only took a single Legionary. I remained on the dusty ground in silent agony for hours, protesting the torture and system shutdown. If I went out now, who knows when I would wake back up. The Cabal would probably see my "dead" body, crush me to ensure I was dea, and toss me out with the rest of the garbage. My chest ached from where the dents healed; my vision lagged and corrupted due to a combination of sleep deprivation and injury, In the background, I could hear Dea's rebellious grunts and Arla's tortured screams.

I crawled towards the wall and sat up against it, listening to their pain and chastising myself for not getting off my sorry butt and kicking the Cabal's. But I couldn't. I was unarmed and unarmored. In my current state, I highly doubt I could do any noticeable damage to a fly back on Earth. What I needed now was the strength and healing abilities that my suit could afford me, but the Cabal either destroyed it already or Starco retracted it from their clutches before they stole him. Hours passed, and after what seemed like an eternity, the screams and grunts stopped. The makeshift cell doors slammed shut as Dea and Arla were thrown unceremoniously into their respective cells as well, ending their second Martian day of torture.

I slumped limply against the wall, trying to make the pain subside without shutting down any systems that would cause me to lose any perception of my surroundings. Unfortunately, that proved impossible, so I had a decision to make: stay in agony and be aware of what happens or be shut down and dead to the world. Ultimately, I didn't get to make that choice.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I rebooted but didn't open my eyes yet. I could hear a singular voice echoing from somewhere in the room. It sounded familiar but was much more masculine than Arla's or Dea's. My eyes remained shut while I tried to focus on what predicament I was in. I slowly moved my fingers, neck, and legs, gauging how I was. It felt like I was leaning forward, but I wasn't sitting. In fact, I was dangling lightly in Mars' lower gravity but certainly not sitting. There were restraints on my legs about the ankle and my hands at the wrist. Using what strength remained, I pushed against them. Immediately, arcs of electricity bolted up and down every inch of me, trying to find the ground but only finding a suitable conductor in me. "AHGH!" I shouted as the electricity steadily waned until it was nothing. While the arcs were gone, the pain continued to linger unimpeded and mingled with that of my previous injuries. I fell limply against the restraints, not trying to test them. I blinked rapidly multiple times, trying to clear up my vision. The corruption in the sensors ceased, and I raised my head slowly and moved only my eyes to look about the room.

Orange-tinted lights illuminated a somewhat messy room that looked vaguely like a safe room. Beds stripped of their linens and mattresses were stacked up in a corner of the room, rusting like Mars itself. Some metal tables in various states of repair sat about the room, some with chairs and some without. The walls and floors were made with the same type of metal with a thick metal door sealing it off from the rest of the world, yet despite their build for longevity, they too were rusted like the beds and tables. I looked below me and saw my own reflection in a pool of red blood slightly dry at the edges. 'Surely that can't be mine,' I thought. I didn't have blood.

A hideous screech pierced the air and my ears as something or someone forced the rusty door open. A Titan in very familiar armor slowly pushed the door open with his shoulder, a Titan with a very familiar-looking assault rifle strapped to his back. "Lee?" I questioned. "What are you doing here?"

He let go of the door, and it immediately shut loudly behind him. "Saving you! What does it look like? Man it's been too long." He ran over to way I hung on the wall and gave the restraints a once-over. He quickly grabbed one and tugged. The restraints immediately electrocuted me as Lee let go. "Crap. Sorry about that," he said, adding the last part as almost an afterthought. "I'll hack the system...Man, the Cabal know how to encrypt." A few moments later, there was a hiss followed by a cloud of red sand exhaled by the vents in the top of the room.

"That was the vents Lee," I commented to myself.

"I see that," he replied. He continued tapping away at some sort of panel located on his left arm, likely scanning vast amounts of information on the inside of his helmet. "There it is!" He exclaimed. There was a loud metallic clank, and I painfully fell to the ground, narrowly missing the pool of blood in my unexpected descent. I pushed myself to my knees and waited for the room to stop corrupting before searching for Lee's hand, but he never offered it. Instead, he was busy listening as heavy footfalls swiftly moved towards the door. The sound eventually stopped, and Lee meandered in my direction to help me up.

"How'd you find me?" I asked as he pulled me up by the arm.

"The Vanguard tracked your ship to Mars and your Ghost here. Starco's since gone silent, but Striker's got a bead on his location and is working on locating him. We need to get moving, or else the Cabal will find us. Then we're both in trouble."

"Where's the rest of your fireteam?" I struggled to ask.

"Dead with their Ghosts destroyed. We had to fight through a couple of Exclusion Zones on the way here, and they paid the ultimate price trying to get here. Why are you even in Ares' Haven to begin with. There's a reason that the Vanguard postponed all operations in this area."

"Dea has a something in the city that can reactivate the Key to the Black Garden…"

"Who's Dea?" He interrupted.

I debated on whether or not I should tell him. His saving me was a little serendipitous and strange at the same time. However, I wasn't going to leave someone who obviously mattered completely out of the loop. "She's one of the Nine. She's been watching our every move for a while now and volunteered to help Arla and me destroy the Heart since you were out of commission at the time. She was captured in addition to myself and Arla. White female Exo. Can't miss her."

"Well, let's get moving. It's not every day that you get to save both of your former teammates as well as one of the mysterious Agents of the Nine."

"Former?" I asked.

"Ugh," he said, obviously annoyed. "Stop with all of the questions."

"I'll stop when you answer all of them."

He sat me down on one of the nearby tables and took off his helmet, slowly breathing in the fake atmosphere the vents created. "Well, as of two hours ago, your dead body, along with Arla's and a mysterious white Exo's, was found just inside an exclusion zone about 2 km from here. All of your Ghosts were destroyed, and I couldn't glean any data from the pieces."

"Wait. What?"

"YOU ARE DEAD MAXIMUS! AND I WANT YOU TO STAY DEAD!" Lee grabbed the rifle slung around his shoulder and took aim at me sitting defenseless against the table. He squeezed the trigger and sprayed several bullets into my body, shredding my torso and exposing vital pieces within.

Suddenly, the hinges on the door broke, and it swung open effortlessly. Lee swung his attention from the dying me over towards the intruders. I steadily lost all feeling in my head and drooped forward, barely paying attention to what happened around me. My vision turned black and white as the top of it flashed with every shot the traitor fired at whomever was trying to intrude. I could see their boots not too far away, but I was unable to look up. My vision corrupted, and my hearing became tunnel-like. I could see a pool of blackness growing beneath me, covering up pieces of me strewn about the floor. My thoughts started to drift in and out while error messages and system failure messages lined the fading edges of my vision.

As I sat dying, I thought about why Lee didn't decide to shoot me in the head and get it over with. I guess he wanted me to suffer in a way similar to how he did after I accidentally hit him with the rocket. I'm sure that's what sparked his hatred of me. But why would he go so far as to fight past the Cabal in an area that the Vanguard didn't even dare go just to find me captured and kill me himself. Unless, he orchestrated this. Could Lee truly betray the Light and the Vanguard just to repay an accidental death? It didn't make any sense to me, and I doubt that Arla or Dea could make sense of it if I were able to tell them.

Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable clatter of plasteel plating hitting concrete. Lee's emotionless face lay near my arm. His eyes were completely black, but as he exhaled, this blackness slowly turned gray and then into a glazed-over white. A comparatively lighter pool of liquid gathered around his neck and head.

I had no evidence, but I felt like Lee died back when we were trying to get to Sepiks Prime. Suddenly, his dead face flickered. Then in a flash of light...

Critical system failure…..

System Corrupt10n: 001101

E01110010r01101111r System 32

Memory Dump In01101001t01101001ate0110100…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\-_

Arla lowered her weapon, stone faced. Dea moved through the open doorway and marked every corner of the room before lowering her weapon, confident nobody else was going to shoot them. The bruises on her chest hurt with every step, but her suit dulled the pain a little bit. It wasn't by a lot, but it was enough to keep her moving. She struggled forward into the room, leaning against the door momentarily until it lulled again and allowed her to proceed.

Inside was the very same torture room the Cabal had taken her and did as the name implies. Dea stemmed the bleeding in her arm and patched up the cut, but it too ached with every movement. Ignoring the pain, she Arla moved into the room and immediately set her eyes on what transpired while she and Dea figured out how to open the door. Lee lay dead as a doornail with several wounds bleeding underneath his armor in addition to his neck. Maximus was slumped very close by with a pool of his own mechanical liquids growing beneath him, his chest torn to shreds with pieces strewn about. His face was devoid of light in both the mouth and eyes. She imagined the pain and panic that must have flown through Maximus as he lay dying by his friend's hand. However, Arla was still in utter disbelief that he would have gone out here just to kill Maximus and be branded a traitor. It was illogical and rather stupid.

Arla turned her head away from the gruesome scene and diverted her attention elsewhere, but moments later, she found herself staring at Lee's dead and glazed over eyes. There was something _inhuman_ about them. Suddenly, his face flickered. His entire being faltered, flashed and continued to do so until a bright light ushered from his body and dimmed almost as quickly as it appeared. In Lee's stead, a Vandal lay with green armor. Dea let out a choice word.

Arla stood back up and stepped away, allowing Dea to get a closer look. She lifted its arm, its head, examined the armor, and then took a step back and got an overall look over it. "What is the House of Illusion doing here? They were supposedly eliminated at least a century ago."

Arla looked at Dea quizically. "I'm sorry. The House of what? Last I checked, there was the Devil's, Kings, and then the Exiles on the Moon."

"Those are just the ones who want to be known. The Fallen reach much farther than just your Solar System. They're pirates, and there are many more of them than meets the eye. The House of Illusion was a Fallen House that the Agents of the NIne eliminated before I was even a recruit. Their hierarchy was basically annihilated and the faction itself was in shambles. The fact that there is one of them in front of us is probably a product of chance. Probably a scavenger, but it is disconcerting."

"This isn't the first one we've seen," Arla blurted out unwillingly. Dea turned to look at her dead in the face, prodding her to go on. "Maximus saw one in the Cosmodrome. He said that it was disguised as me."

Dea pondered that for a moment. "That definitely makes things a bit more complicated. Has there been any other occurences as far as you know?"

"Not really. We could probably ask the Vanguard when we get back."

"Unfortunately, the path will be a little more treacherous than you think. We need to get going before the Cabal send reinforcements, so if you would be so kind as to revive Maximus."

"Finally," Starco said, flashing into existence to the right of Arla's head. He floated over to Maximus and immediately expanded to where the points on his shell were hovering and spinning in a blue orb around the central eye. Stargazer materialized and interacted with Starco's expanded form, causing the blue orb to grow in luminosity and change to a brighter color. Maximus' body disappeared, taking all of the little pieces with him. Somewhere in the facility, his weapons and armor disappeared as suddenly as his body did.

Starco quickly closed and reopened, releasing a bright and somewhat harsh light as he did so. When the light faded, Maximus stood confidently with his helmet in his hand.

_-/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In a flash of light, I was revived. My systems rebooted and calibrated as if nothing had ever happened, no aches or pains stayed. Yet I still retained the distinct memory of Lee killing me. When I looked down however, a Fallen Vandal in green armor lay dead on the floor. Arla was simply staring whilst Dea was rummaging through a cabinet near the rusted bed frames. I could tell shde was still pained by her injury, a reminder of her folly when we first landed and my underestimation of the Cabal's military prowess. They were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Then again, I was basically fighting them by myself until the very end.

I looked at the Vandal again. It was in House of Illusion garb, a very unwelcome sight after it impersonated Arla at the Cosmodrome. Beside it lay either a version or a replica of the SUROS Regime that Lee had before I hit him with the rocket.

Apparently finding what she was looking for, Dea exclaimed, "Aha!" She briskly walked over to Arla and jabbed a syringe in her neck while she wasn't looking. Arla immediately reacted with a howl, but couldn't grab the needle before Dea removed it. Arla spun on her heel and gave Dea a death stare. "What was that for?"

Dea shut the cabinet. "The fight ahead. This is a safe room that had some medical supplies like the nanobots I just injected into you. They'll repair the tissue that I damaged and you should excreet…"

Arla held up a hand quickly, "Say no more; say no more. I'm good thank you."

Dea looked my direction. "What? I was just saying it how it was."

I brushed it off. "Just let it be. The Cabal are probably on their way here as we speak, and I'm sure they heard the door." I grabbed the Multi-Tool from its place on my back and checked the magazine. Dea reclaimed her yellow rifle from the floor, while Arla unholstered a black and white hand cannon.

Dea laid out the plan. "What we need to do..." she started. "...is get to the lower levels. Intel shows huge energy spikes down in the subway area. This either means that the Cabal are using a nuclear reactor underneath a building, or the Vex have portals down there. When you see a portal, alert everyone else and jump through. I just hope that it leads directly into the Garden or somewhere close to the entrance on Mars."

I stopped her for a moment. "Don't we need to power up the Key?"

Dea reached into a sack she kept underneath her cape and produced the Key, glowing brightly. "I sent it back to the Nine and had it restored. We just need to find the Black Garden and insert our key within the next couple of Martian days or we'll be out of luck and options."

"Sounds manageable," Arla said, obviously feeling better. Her Ghost flashed in an orange hand cannon with something dropping off the barrel as well as a nasty looking shotgun colored red and blue. She loaded each of them and holstered the hand cannon. I also switched to my hand cannon but kept my sidearm holstered at my leg. Dea kept her yellow pulse rifle out and ready.

"Let's get moving," Dea announced, a gold reflective material replacing the clear visor. "Follow me."

She made her way to the door with me a few feet behind her and Arla covering the rear. We made our way down a few empty hallways with no sign of the Cabal. We eventually came to a lift with its car disconnected and smashed up in the blackness underneath us. Starco shined his light into the shaft, but it only cast the depths into deeper shadows. "How far down are the subway tracks?" Arla asked, peering into the murky blackness.

"Far enough down that it isn't worth the risk of the fall," Dea replied. "The Cabal probably have all sorts of traps set up to catch people snooping around or escaping."

"Something tells me that escapees isn't their main concern. I didn't see any other prisoners."

"Probably because they killed them all already." Dea moved over to a door adjacent to the elevator and pushed it open, revealing several stairs that spiraled down in a square with a hole in the middle. "Going down," she said, announcing her going first. She vaulted the railing and fell several flights before latching onto the wall and slowing her decent using what looked like magnetic gloves of some sort. I nodded for Arla to go on ahead whilst I marked the door. I didn't see, but I was fairly certain that Arla fell a few more flights, double jumped, and pulled herself up to the landing Dea was at. "Waiting for you," Arla said quietly over the comms.

I leapt over the bar, looking at for the glow of Stargazer's light below me. I searched for several seconds while I fell but saw nothing. I glided momentarily but still couldn't see anything by the time it ran out. It cut off unexpectedly and left me falling without any way to cushion my fall. Then I saw it. Not Stargazer's light but the glint of Dea's helmet. I quickly holstered the hand cannon and made a desperate grab for the ledge, but I was too late. I was going too fast and my grip never set. The ricochet sent me tumbling across the opening and slammed me into the stairs. As a hot knife through butter, I crashed straight through the stairs and into the set below it.

I pushed the rubble off of me. Arla and Dea rushed down the stairs to assist in getting the pieces of the stairs off, not caring where they went. A couple moved off the ledge and crashed onto the solid floor somewhere beneath us. Once the major pieces were shoved off the edge or to the side, both grabbed an arm each and hauled me up. I dusted myself off and told them I was alright and drew my weapon. Dea glanced over the edge. "Six flights to the floor," she said. "We're definitely underground, but the subway system is down an additional set of steps not far from here."

There was no more leaping over railings as we descended those last few flights, methodically checking each flight before moving down to ensure it wouldn't break on any of us. We proceeded through the doorway at the bottom. The path split into three different directions that likely met up at some point further along, but there was no way to be sure. Dea turned around in front of us and pulled out her holographic map again. This time she scrolled across it until she found the dot of the map within the building we were in. The building then sliced away by floor until it got to the level we were currently occupying. "Ok," she began. "This is where things get dangerous. The path splits off into three paths that meet up here…" she indicated a point a few rooms ahead. "...That is the entrance to the subway. The right path takes a more indirect route, but it does run by a maintenance room. Maximus, I want you to take that route and get the lights back on _this floor __only_. Arla, you take the left; it should lead to a server room. Download whatever data you can from the towers, and then rendevous with me at the entrance. I'll be taking the middle course, but I'm not going too terribly far until the lights are on. I'm going ahead and saying weapons free, but don't fire recklessly because the last thing we want is as entire legion on our heads. If you can help it, use quick melees and quiet weapons unless absolutely necessary. Watch your backs and check your corners unless you don't want to rip out the Heart. Get moving." Arla and I nodded. I didn't know her opinion on the situation, but I wasn't too keen on taking orders from her. Despite my inner objections, she had the map and seemed to have a better knowledge of what she's doing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I moved slowly down the dark and somewhat unnerving hallway. Starco's light cast strange shadows on objects strewn about the floor and made some dark and small objects look much bigger and dangerous than they actually were. I found myself almost constantly against the wall, checking behind me for any signs of the Cabal or the Vex. I could tell they were close as the sounds of battle echoed through the empty halls.

The hall swerved off to the left and revealed a group of 4 doors on each side of the hall. "Hey you," something whispered.

I reaffirmed my grip on my sidearm and moved forward slowly. "Arla? Dea?" I called. "Was that you?"

Arla responded. "Everything ok Maximus? Comms have been silent."

"Yeah," I said. "Thought I heard something."

"Oh you did," the whispered continued. "However, it's not them."

"Who's there?" I practically yelled down the hallway. "I'm not in the mood for any games."

The whisper continued. "Ah, but this _is_ a game Maximus. One that you and I will play together until you find me. It shouldn't be that difficult though; I can't move after all. Not since I was left here."

'It had to be a ghost,' I concluded. Whether or not it was hostile was yet to be determined, but I kept my weapon for any good that it would do. All of the doors were shut with the first two on the left side being slightly cracked open. I slowly opened the door and kept my pistol trained on the ever-growing opening. The door creaked eerily as it swung open wide. Empty. The disembodied whisper snickered. "I'm not in there." I ignored its comment and pushed open the door across from the first. At first it didn't budge, but it opened when I gave it a forceful nudge. That room was just as empty as the first and voice snickered again. "Not there either."

"Enough with the games," I quietly commanded. "Show yourself or you'll be playing games with the deceased."

"Like I said, I can't show myself until you find me. I would if I could, but this is a much more entertaining way of doing it." I exited the room and moved forward to the next set of doors.

"Well then, let's play a game that's pretty easy to combine with yours. Who are you?"

"I'm not sure that's how 20 Questions works Maximus."

"Well if you want, I could just leave you here…" It immediately interrupted. "Nononononono! Let's not get hasty." To which I replied, "Then answer the question."

The voice regained its composure. "It's more of a 'what' than a 'who' kind of question."

"Then, _what _are you?" I inquired. The voice was definitely getting louder the farther down the hallway I went, and it was at its loudest in the third set of doors.

"You'll see when you find me. I'll tell you only this: I'm not what you think I am."

"A ghost?"

"I don't think I technically ever lived. Really you could say that I'm a shadow of my former self I guess." The voice was coming from the third door on the left; I was sure of it. I tried to ease the door open but it remained shut. The lock was too rusted to turn, so I tried to force it open, but it refused to move. Resorting to seemingly drastic measures, I shot the lock and kicked the door in. Whatever material it was made of immediately shattered when I kicked it.

I stepped through the doorway and fanned the dust and particles as I did so. The room was just as barren as all of the previous save for a dull gray box with a flashing green light at the bottom. It automatically opened as I approached it, hissing quietly. I crouched down and inserted my hand into the box slowly. My fingers brushed something hard. I waved my hand around in the box, exploring every surface of the object in the cache. Starco shined his light on the box and revealed a dilapidated machine gun frame whose framework was in decent condition but the magwell was separated, and none of the mechanical parts that should have been present were actually there.

"I know," the gun admitted. "I'm a wreck. I was left here when Panahan died I don't know how long ago, and then the Cabal stripped me for parts and shoved my carcass in here. I find it curious that no Guardian found me before today."

I tried to find some way to it why but found myself unable to come up with a reasonable hypothesis that would make it look like I knew what I was talking about. Starco beat me to it. "Guardians haven't been operating here for some time," he said.

"That's probably due to Panahan's disappearance. He's dead by the way; Cabal boxed him in with those blasted phalanxes until one of their Centurions lit 'em up with those rockets of his. Those blasted rocket launchers are gonna pay…"

"Hey, calm down," I said, feeling kind of stupid. I was talking down a _disabled _ machine gun of all things. "You'll get your chance once we get you rebuilt. Plenty of Cabal out there."

"There won't be when I'm done with them," the gunframe said menacingly. I never thought that something like that could be so vengeful. I credited that to its previous master's horrendous demise. Panahan, based solely on the frame's extremely brief overview of his life, sounded like a loner, and his untimely death likely caused the Vanguard to assign almost everyone to a fireteam. After all, nobody was invinceable, and my experience as a Guardian has taught me that the hard way. I picked up the frame and connected a spare sling to it. It was much denser than I thought it would have been, but then again, it carried some pretty heavy memories along with it. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for it.

Arla had gone through a much similar situation when that warehouse collapsed on top of me due to the Wall. As I watched her from beyond, ordered by Starco and my subconscious not to mess with her or her mortal affairs, but when she died in that forest, I couldn't help myself. All of what happened in those tunnels took willpower that I never knew I had before. I was equally amazed when she approached that little kid but somewhat shocked when the people reached out to touch her as if they'd never seen a Guardian up close. They were all around the streets, especially after the Fallen's offensive on the wall. My guess was that they'd never seen one show such solemn and tender kindness and willingly give up a piece of armor, the only line of defense between her and the burning plasma of an enemy gunshot.

Suddenly, something, one of the doors perhaps, shattered in the hallway. A glowing red light pierced the darkness of the hallway as I quickly took cover on one of the walls. Starco disappeared as soon as I heard that sound and activated the nightvision on my helmet, dulling some of the colors but I could see them well enough. I pressed myself against the wall and eased my way over to the side of the doorway. There was a Vex Goblin standing in front of a doorway, its arm extended, with the door in splinters. The Goblin turned around, clanked towards the opposite door, and extended its arm again. Bright purple light quickly grew from its palm until it burst forth. The door immediately shattered into small chunks that scattered across the floor. It checked inside the room and exited without finding anything.

Moving to my set of doors, the Gobl9in immediately noticed the broken door and moved forward slowly before entering my room. I pressed myself against the wall even harder as it stomped in, its eye bathing the dark room in blood red light. I quietly slipped out of the room and waited for it to exit. Several seconds later, the red light shone back on the hallway as it slowly walked out. Just as it entered the hallay, I punched it in the singular eye and kicked it in the chest. As surprised as it could be, it fell onto its back, and I finished it off with a couple of shots in the white light above its waist. I silently stepped through the hallway with my weapon drawn in case any more Vex decided to pop up for a visit. The motion tracker was clear of any movement besides my own. I peeked around the corner and saw nothing.

I turned the corner and moved a bit quicker down this hallway until I got to a sealed bulkhead at the end, above it were some strange symbols that I didn't immediately recognize. "This is where we need to be," Starco piped up. "Those are Mandarin Chinese for Nuclear Reactor. Question is how to get in."

I studied the door. The door likely shut whenever the power shut down as a safety precaution. The override panel had been smashed in and rendered inoperable without power anyways. There were signs of rust and metal degradation all over the door, but it remained sturdy as far as I could tell. It was just really dusty. I radioed Dea and Arla. "I found the reactor but the room is sealed off without any obvious way to get in. The override's been smashed. If either of you have a suggestion or two, that would be great."

"That certainly sounds like a problem," Dea responded, sounds of battle clearly bleeding through. "Is there a panel on the center of the door?" I wiped my hand on the door and uncovered several small holes where screws were likely holding something in place.

"I think so. It looks like there's some sort of panel in the door."

"If you can get it open, pull the lever back and it should move after that."

"Ok," I said. I took out my sidearm and fired several shots into the dull metal. I first shot the body of the door, but nothing happened besides a few black marks. The next few shots demolished the apparently thin manual override panel within the thick door. I yanked the lever back and a loud _POP_ echoed off the walls and down the hallway. "Hope nothing heard that," I said.

As if on cue, the door tilted back and crashed loudly and heavily on the metal floor inside the power station. The sound reverberated on every surface imaginable, refusing to die down for at least 15 seconds. Small red circles started lighting up one by one at first, but quickly appearing in pairs and trios. Before I knew it, at least 20 red circles were looking dead at me. "I think they heard you," Starco stated. Angry red ;streams of energy sliced the air around me as I tried to find cover in the darkness. The nightvision didn't light up anything substantial, so I was stumbling through the darkness without any assistance other than the dim light that came whenver plasma came my direction. Suddenly, I smacked into soething big and metallic, the air ringing when I struck it. Still avoiding fire, I placed a hand on it and made it to what I determined was the opposite side to most of the Vex in there. I crouched down and leaned out, managing to get a few shots out with the Multi-Tool before Hobgoblins forced me back in cover. I moved to the other side and tossed a grenade toward a cluster of eyes. Something hot and painful struck me in the back. Instinctively, I snatched my hand cannon and fired a single bullet at whatever hit me, a Hobgoblin exploding after I shot. I holstered the gun and pulled out the Multi-Tool again, switching the magazine and taking out a few more Goblins before I was forced back into cover.

More Vex shots screamed through the air around whatever I was taking cover behind; some impacted the thing dead on. They steadily gained ground on my position and flushed me out of cover, causing me to glide backward. I charged up a three-shot Nova Bomb and fired it at the remaining Vex. Before I realized what I'd done, light exploded from where I'd been taking cover, and the blast slammed me into the concrete wall.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

My suit alarms blared loudly as I tried to refocus my sight and get back on my feet, however nothing worked like it should until Arla and Dea sprinted into the room expecting trouble. Instead, they got a room a dead Vex, partially melted from the explosion. It wasn't very big, but the central orb of the Nova Bomb struck a long-dormant bomb that was likely supposed to destroy the block centuries ago. It was a disastrous wonder that it lasted this long. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the reactor was long dead, stripped for parts by the Cabal. They simply missed the bomb as they tore it apart.

Only a sliver of my shield/armor bar remained, and it didn't take me looking at it to tell. I was sore for several minutes as I tried to regain my basic functions following the blast. I thought the light would die out after the explosion ended, but instead, a blue-white glow replaced it. As I looked into it, I realized it was some sort of energy field. Still in somewhat of a daze, Arla helped me up and walked me over to it. I knew they were speaking, but all I could hear was a ringing in my ear at an unpleasant pitch and volume. Dea suddenly jumped in. The light grew in intensity momentarilyl, and then Arla was gone too. Unable to fully comprehend what the field was, I jumped in too.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Everything was white. White to my left and right as far as I could see. There was some sort of whooshing sound that my newly recovered hearing picked up faintly, and a disturbing feeling of going faster than I perceived arose somewhere within me. My feet felt like they were moving through molasses in mid winter, and I could see small pieces of ice beginning to gather on my claok and sleeves.

In an instant, the whiteness collapsed, revealing a tall, dark corridor with a strange ivy growing from cracks in the metal floor and walls. Farther down, I could see large squared-off blocks of stone jutting out from the wall. My eyes shifted from the room to the two others standing in awe and amazement at the room. "This is it," Dea whispered; then she spoke louder. "We're in the Black Garden, outside any known maps created by the Nine, the Tower, or anybody." She stood heroically in front of the corridor, her yellow gun with its glowing tip leaning against her shoulder. "This is where we all find our Destiny."


	31. The Black Garden

Chapter 31

The Black Garden

The gravel floor crunched loudly beneath cautious and carefully placed boots, echoing uncomfortably loud on the vined metal walls. Each of us kept our guns ready and heads on a swivel. Our footsteps hit the ground in a quick series of three, ensuring that at least one of us would have both feet on the ground if something were to pounce on us. However, nothing came. As we roamed the hallways, squads of Goblins lined the halls, but their forms lacked any sort of light or sign that they were indeed alive. Starco said there were in a "dormant" state, unthinking and unable to move.

We turned another corner and were greeted by yet another group of dormant Vex. They stood still, like robotic statues able to move when commanded, but those orders were yet to be received. The vines covering the walls extended to their metal bodies as well, tying them to the wall in a similar manner to their ties to the Garden. Other than our footsteps, everything was eerily silent. We kept our voices low due to the likelihood of a loud echo. "It's amazing that nothing's shot at us in about an hour," Starco commented.

Dea stopped for a moment and turned around to face Arla and I. "I have to agree with the Little Light. I honestly expected there to be much more resistance than this."

I too sensed that things were going a little too swimmingly. "They're setting up a trap," I concluded.

"Or perhaps don't know we're here," Arla suggested, obviously discontent with the prospect of a trap. Dea started walking again with us in tow.

"Think of it this way," I reasoned. "They're robots, similar to Dea and myself, they want to find the most efficient way to kill us. Sending small amounts of troops through hallways their big guns can't fit in isn't a very strategic way to go about things. I think that they're leading us to a larger area where they could send large amounts of troops with heavy support in order to back us into a corner and exterminate us like the pests we are to them."

"And how do you know this?" Arla questioned.

"The Fallen used similar tactics when they destroyed the cities. They wound push from the edges until everyone is trapped in the center, and before they know it, they're dead."

Dea walked backwards for a second, "However, we're stronger than they were. We need to push past them to get to the Heart." Everyone was silent after that. In the distance, the corridor seemed to open up back into the natural world or, at the very least, the world the Vex created. Another two rows of Goblins lined the exit as we carefully moved that way.

Something moved in that group as we moved forward. It was a very slight movement, but something leaned out and immediately leaned back in nonetheless. "Something moved," I said quietly. Dea nodded and motioned me forward. I raised the Multi-Tool to a ready position and stepped forward slowly at first but gradually gaining speed in an attempt to get the Goblin to move again. Soon enough, I was right in the middle of the Goblins, and each was just like the ones we'd seen before: dark metal bodies covered in vines with no sign of activation. I turned around to tell Arla and Dea my findings, or the lack thereof, when all of the Goblins suddenly reanimated and quickly spun to face me, guns blazing. My shields collapsed almost instantaneously. At the same time, I clutched a grenade and threw it straight down as I glided out of their forming circle of death. The ones that didn't die in the cluster grenade's explosion, accidentally shot one another before they realized what had happened.

By the time I landed, my shields had recovered just over halfway and were quickly rising. Arla and Dea rushed to where I was a little late, but still went through the formality of ensuring that I was, for the most part, uninjured. We proceeded through the opening and immediately saw the vastness of the Garden. From our tall vantage point, the Black Garden extended its clutches for miles upon miles, seemingly to no end. Dark green plants accented the blacks and grays of the strikingly machine scenery it was made from. In all honesty, it probably was one giant machine with capabilities far beyond any known interpretation.

Dea stopped on the outcropping and stared into the empty circle that was likely the trap set for us. The elevation varied from the floor to sniping posts dotting the area. There were three large, circular doors spaced equally in the circle. One of those had to lead to the Heart. "We're almost there," Dea stated. She pointed to the door dead ahead of us, a giant pillar spiraled in the center like a beacon minus the light. Instead, darkness pulsated off of its form. "It's through that door, but we need to activate the confluxes at each of the doors before we can use the key to get through. And to do that, we have hordes of Vex to fight through."

I checked my weapons and moved to the edge of the outcropping. Nothing was there yet, but I knew as soon as we set our feet anywhere inside, dozens of Vex would swarm with the aim of eradicating the infestation. After all, we were bringing pure light into the heart of the darkness. Without any previous warning, I leapt from the outcropping and descended into the waiting trap. I enjoyed the sound of the Garden's air whistling as I fell and blinked to the ground about midway through the fall. I landed with my knees bent, but it was still a hard landing that put a small crater in the ground. Arla and Dea hit the ground a few seconds after I did. I looked behind me for only a second, and immediately turned back to see an army of Vex teleporting in a black cloud.

I charged forward as the cloud dissipated whilst firing several shots into the horde. Several bullets and arcs of energy scattered around me in both directions. As I approached the front line, I jumped into the air, deposited a grenade, and blinked out of there. Now that I was behind them, I launched a Nova Bomb to exterminate the rest of the group there. Arla soared through the air above me and sprinted into the right part of the area, gracefully leaping over the valleys that would ultimately spell our doom from the Hobgoblins sniping from the posts above. Dea ran along the wall, pulled herself onto one of the higher areas, and sprinted left.

Constantly dodging fire from the hobgoblins above, I stalked the Vex from the inner pathways. The first wave was dismantled within a matter of minutes. I swapped the Multi-Tool for the hand cannon just as the second wave descended in a cloud of darkness. I blinked to the top of a metallic hill to get a better look over the second wave. It was certainly larger than the first, and Minotaurs decided to jump into the fight too. Arla was combating a squad of Goblins aided by one of those. Meanwhile, Dea was rolling beneath the fists of two Minotaurs as Hobgoblins peppered the ground beneath her.

Suddenly, a bright flash of red slammed into my chest, knocking me to the ground easily. A Minotaur of my own teleported right in front of me and raised a heavy fist to finish me off. The shoulder snapped and sent the fist hurtling at my face. With only millimeters to spare, I rolled to the side but still couldn't get up. A second fist whiffed the ground as I scrambled out of its reach and moved behind it. I meleed it in the back once and put a couple of rounds in its legs before pushing it over the side of the platform. I ducked under a few more Hobgoblin bolts and jumped back into the trenches. I reloaded and dipped into a crevice not too far from a squad of Goblins trying to shoot Arla off of a sniper post. I peeked around the corner and tossed a grenade into the cluster. Ducking back into cover, I saw various pieces of the robots fly past my cover. More red streaks blew by my helmet and struck my side. I immediately ducked and sent a few shots in back in the way of the plasma bolts. I sent a few errant shots to keep the Vex at bay, purposely missing to buy some time for my shields to recharge.

I reloaded and peered out once more, but instead of Vex standing there, Dea was crouched among a pile of mangled parts. She stood and glanced at me for a split second before leaping into the air again to fight something else. Sensing something behind me, I spun on my heel and fired off a single shot, shattering a Goblin to pieces. Arla's voice crackled over the comms. "One conflux activated," she announced, clearly out of breath.

"Good work," Dea stated rather flatly. "I'm nearing the door. Maximus, how close are you to the other?"

I fired another shot from cover as more Vex bore down on my position. "I'm working on it. Plenty of Vex down in the trenches."

"You could have stayed above," Dea commented.

I fired off another few shots and reloaded. "Who else was going to cover you both from below?" I joked. I switched to my sidearm and finished off the few Vex still in my way. I jumped onto one of the ledges and continued running across each one until I neared the other conflux. With most of the Vex either dead or chasing Dea, I easily got to the second conflux with little resistance. Starco appeared, and started scanning the gridded pillar of light. "We're scanning the second one," I reported.

"Be quick about it," Dea shouted over gunfire. "We've got a new wave moving in." I turned to Starco and helplessly watched him scan the streams of data and light.

Then, everything went dark. My HUD went fuzzy and almost pitch black. I waved my hands in front of the helmet, trying to get it to refocus, but it didn't work. Nothing cut through the grainy darkness. White-Blue light flashed, growing in intensity until it dropped heavy metal thuds. The mist cleared out in a fraction of a second and left me surrounded. At least 10 Goblins surrounded me. A quick glance to the skies and I saw Arla being shoved off of a sniper post from behind. She fell limply and helplessly to the ground, the impact hidden behind one of the hills. I couldn't see Dea, and I dared not speak. The Goblins slowly closed on me, encircling me in a ring of death if I made any sudden move. They left me about a five foot radius, but their weapons remained pointed on my head. A red glow gathered on the ends of each gun simultaneously, but I remained calm. Waiting until the last possible second, I threw my hands down and blinked just outside the circle. The plasma meant to batter me instead disassembled several of the Vex, and I quickly dispatched the remainder before they realized where I went.

I sprinted to the approximate area where I'd seen Arla fall, dodging fire left and right, but I couldn't find her body or Ghost anywhere. "Dea, Arla? Where are you?" Silence. "Do either of you receive?" There was no answer for several long seconds.

"Did they abandon you?" the gun frame asked from my back.

"I don't think so," I said, hoping that they didn't. Arla was likely dead or in the process of it, and the absolute last thing I wanted was to lose her. Dea was an enigma, and I frankly didn't care much for her safety, but her apparent knowledge of this place and skill were valuable assets. She was strange in her apparent trust and then distrust for us. Then again, she may not have ever trusted us at all and is only giving us enough "need-to-know" information to keep us from delving too far into her mind. I got the feeling this wasn't the first time she'd been here, but it was hopefully going to be the last...for all of us.

I looked around for any sign of Arla or Dea. Gunfire, a shadow, something. There was nothing though. Out of pure chance, I looked at the doors and noticed that the center one was open, closing quickly. I sprinted and blinked as hard and far as I could to close the gap. Slightly fatigued, I made it to the door just as it was squeezing shut.

It shut hard behind me, the sound echoing into the seemingly infinite distance of the Garden. The path sloped downward with more of the squared hills sharply sloping up and then back down again. I moved forward slowly, constantly on the lookout for any Vex or sign of Arla or Dea. I tried the radio again to no avail; no long-distance signal was getting out or coming in, just static.

Everything remained eerily still and quiet as I proceeded forward, the only sound being my boots crunching the grass and gravel. Eventually, the slope grew steep enough that I would have to slide down so far that I would not realistically be able to get back up. I turned around and looked over the terrain all the way back up to the ominous door for any sign of my teammates, but just like before, there was none, not even a footprint. I sat down on the top of the hill and pushed off, leaving myself vulnerable to the slope of the hill beneath me. At the bottom, I stood up and dusted off my robe and armor. I observed the ground in front of me, but found no evidence of footprints or signs of struggle anywhere. It was as if this was a forgotten section or rarely used path. Then again, it could be a well-laid trap to pick off the separated straggler.

Despite the uneasiness I felt, the Garden fascinated me as I cautiously walked through it. The pace I walked allowed me to take in every detail of the strangely living machine that the Black Garden appeared to be. It was terrible and beautiful all at once, and I couldn't help but see a little bit of myself in the Vex. We were opposites of the spectrum though. I maintained the light, whilst they tried to stamp it out. Walls and a dark ceiling shadowed me once more with still no sight of any Vex or the others.

Hours passed and the twilight of the sky quickly turned to the murky blackness of night. I never saw any sort of star in the sky, but whatever kept this place alight was fading fast while my nervousness only grew. I found myself checking my corners more often and glancing over my shoulder to see if anything was following me. The darkness and my worrying were quickly draining my power, and I eventually had to stop and rest. I sat against a large wall, propped my head back, and powered down for the night, _if_ it could be considered that.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I woke up alone. My proximity sensors never went off, nor did anyone try to contact me. At least 8 hours had passed since I had seen another living thing, or at least something that resembled life besides the vines and grasses. Still trying to find the heart or the others, I pressed onwards without any inkling as to where to go. The cave ended and I was left looking out over a large section of the Garden. Large canyons separated what looked like isolated sections while a large mountain loomed in the green-tinted morning. "You think that's the Heart?" I asked Starco.

"I don't think so," he replied. "I'm getting high concentrations of darkness from somewhere beneath us. They're the highest I've seen since we got in here, so we're heading in the right direction, but if they get any stronger, they could choke out even the Speaker's light without anything laying a physical finger on him."

"How comforting."

"Well, at least it's instantaneous."

"I mean," the gun frame added. "There are much worse and painful ways to go. Then there's also being physically torn apart and neglected for decades, centuries even, unable to die but able to suffer."

All of us remained in awkward silence for several long seconds. "Way to lighten the mood," Starco snided within my helmet.

"Well, just be thankful you're not rusted and in pieces."

"We will be if we don't keep moving," I inserted, turning away from the sprawling view of the Garden and continuing down the path. More walking in eerie silence followed. My footsteps echoed throughout the high walls of the cavern without any response from the Vex. I continued broadcasting a distress signal over all channels in hopes that Arla or Dea would receive it, but I'd had no such luck so far. The only thing that answered was the gentle breeze that picked up, carrying an almost tangible darkness.

As far as I could tell, everything dripped with a malignant power. I could feel it trying to enter my being at every moment and every turn. At times, its influence waxed in potency, and in others it waned. It felt like an ocean at high and low tide, but I couldn't see this ocean in the slightest, just felt it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Arla sucked in as hard as she could, trying to get at least some air into her lungs, but it seemed like she just couldn't get enough. Breathing hurt. It felt like someone was stabbing a knife through her chest every time she inhaled and slowly pulling it out on each exhale. Her eyes remained shut and her muscles tensed as she prepared for more pain with every breath. 'Those nanites are sure taking their time,' she thought to herself. She coughed a couple of times and tried to stand. Her legs didn't move nor her arms. "The...heck…" she muttered, struggling against the restraints. She tried to open her eyes, but nothing happened, only an inky blackness remained. It was then that she realized that her eyes had been open almost the entire time. There was almost no difference in the darkness of her closed eyes and her environment. It unnerved her quite a bit. Her energy drained from struggling and pain, Arla slumped in the restraints holding her in the air and focused on each breath, feeling her lungs and pain expand with each breath.

The pain slowly died to a dull ache and then to basically nothing at all. 'About time,' she thought. She fought the restraints again, wriggling against them with all of her remaining strength. Sweat dripped from her forehead and ran down her visor. The suit was getting hot without the internal atmosphere active. Everything in her suit was inactive: the HUD, atmospheric regulators...oxygen supply. There was no telling how long she'd been out, and without the systems online, Arla didn't know how much oxygen she had left. 'Must have been the fall.'

Under normal circumstances, this wasn't an issue, but this mission had never been under normal circumstances. 'Maybe all it needs is a little jumpstart,' she reasoned. It had been deactivated with a hard hit; another hard hit might bring it back online. Arla flicked her head back at the wall she was pinned against. She repeated the hit, gently at first but increased the force behind it with every blow. She threw her head against the wall a fifth time, and the HUD flickered only for a second; Arla felt dizzy but satisfied with her progress. Hitting it one last time, Arla slammed the back of her helmet into the wall as hard as she possibly could. Immediately, the HUD reactivated, and its familiar lights and indicators flashed on. The temperature cooled almost immediately, and the air became noticeably fresher and less stagnant.

She switched on the night vision but saw next to nothing. There was a limp form not too far from her, also hanging from the wall. Arla swapped to thermals. Most of the area was painted in a cold blue, but the figure was painted in yellows, oranges, and reds with pink in the middle. The blue looked to be pulsating and steadily encroaching on the vivid colors belonging to the form. Small drops of red and yellow liquid slowly gathered at what looked like the boot and dripped off, forming a small, quickly darkening puddle beneath it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The power grew stronger with every step I took. I could tell I was going the right way because Starco kept getting more and more nervous. The darkness was all but tangible the farther forward we went; I could have sworn that it was starting to dim my HUD and corrode my armor. I kept moving though, checking my corners much more often and paying more attention to the motion tracker than I had in the past.

I had lost all sense of time and direction as I wandered through the Garden. Each vined wall looked exactly like the last, and it gave me a sense of hopelessness as I turned every corner, hoping to see Arla or Dea wandering like me. I'd even settle for a Goblin or two just to break the dark silence that surrounded me.

"Stop!" Starco suddenly cried. I immediately froze in my tracks, looking down the scope of the Multi-Tool for some sort of target. There was nothing on the motion tracker, but technology wasn't always right.

"What's wrong?" I asked, still holding my gun at the ready.

"I got something, a flicker of data. I think it was our ship. I don't think that's possible because I can't find our location on any known maps of anywhere in the Solar System. My guess is that we're on some dwarf planet or moon, but we haven't seen the planet it orbits, so I lean to the former."

"Feels much bigger than a dwarf planet," I commented.

"True."

"You haven't done any of the walking though."

Starco chuckled. "Also true. One of the advantages of being a Guardian's companion. I don't have to do any of the literal legwork." Our lighthearted conversation seemed to pierce the darkness in some negligible yet noticeable way.

"You think we might not even be in our solar system?" I looked up at the sky, stars poking through the dim and hazy light. "Look at that blue star there. I think that might be its version of the Sun, but when I look at it, there's a sort of familiarity, a connection, with it. It's strange."

"I'm getting it again," Starco said urgently. "Those are definitely signals from our ship. It's an unmistakeable signature. What's it doing out here and how'd it find us?"

"As interesting as that sounds, I kind of want to find Arla and Dea first."

"The Darkness is making it hard to pick up any signals. Even the ones from the ship were just fragments. I'm not sure I...hold up." He paused for several seconds. "Got something. A flicker of light coming from here." He placed a marker on my HUD, and I started following it at a brisk pace. The path he marked brought us deeper into the Garden but also closer to our goal. Darker concentrations of evil settled in the air as the wind decreased with the increase in caves and giant stone pillars. Footprints and dragging marks appeared every once in a while. I had no doubt that it was either Arla or Dea, maybe even both.

I had long since given up on tracking time here. The Black Garden seemed disjointed from it, and something told me that it didn't pass at the same rate as Earth and the other planets. After all, the Vex to bring platforms in and out of my timestream, so given enough time, I reasoned they could alter their own dimension in some sort of way. Maybe the Vex were four or five dimensional beings where time was just like a bridge they could travel on.

My continued thinking led me straight into a and unbalanced from the impact, I fell backwards. "Smooth move," Starco remarked.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," I replied full of sarcasm. I stood up and examined the wall. Actually, that wasn't true; it was a door and a large one at that. No noises came from the other side, but what looked like streams of darkness squirmed through the cracks like black tentacles from some dark and corrupted Kraken. It seemed stupid and probably looked even more idiotic, but I knocked, rapping on the door three solid times with a clenched fist. As expected, no response save for a "Really?" from Starco.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, waving off the comment. I placed my hands on the crack in the door and tried to find some sort of small opening to slip them into. Starco redistributed a fair amount of power into my gauntlets as I found a small lip and started forcing the door open. The door was heavy and solid all the way through for a good foot or so. It was a miracle that I was able to make a hole large enough for me to squeeze through, the strain continuing to throb in my arms and torso for several minutes afterwards. I got through the door though and entered a room darker in atmosphere and light than anything I'd previously seen. The only parts of my gun that I could actually see was the ammo counter and the compass just to the left of it. Night vision didn't do me too many favors, and thermal coated everything in dark shades of blue that looked to have tendrils of some sort.

"I don't see anything. You sure you saw something?" I questioned. We kept our voices low as a precaution.

Starco flashed in and activated his light. The floor was a dark gray stone that had vines similar to those on the walls. It was extremely uneven, squared off stones of varying sizes jutting out of the ground anywhere from a few inches to a few feet. I nearly fell over from tripping four or five times, earning an alternating snicker from the gun frame and Starco upon every stumble. I scolded both of them, telling them to try walking sometime, and that seemed to work well enough without any bruised "feelings," though I probably could've been a little more polite.

The floor finally smoothed out and I repeated my question, still unable to discern anything from the murk in the room. "I know there was something in here," he replied, beginning to also question if he'd seen anything at all.

"_Is _or _was_? There's a pretty big difference." I stopped, and Starco continued sweeping his small light around, looking for some sort of evidence of life or Vex. I created an orb in my hand like a small torch and slowly followed Starco from behind. I couldn't see much more than a foot or so in front of my feet, and the orb made shadows an even deeper black and the darkness that much thicker. I had to turn off the thermal and night vision as the orb generated too much heat and light for me to see well enough.

I continued walking, but still maintaining some sort of awareness to what was to my left and right, suspecting that it was too dark and quiet for there not be something lurking just beyond my modest light's reaches. While focused on the left and right, I forgot to look below and slipped on a fault between two of the stone squares on the floor, sliding me forward onto my face and causing me to drop the Multi-Tool, the gun clattering loudly and skidding several meters away. The orb immediately dissipated and Starco was too far away for his light to be of any use to me. I looked up at where he was in the distance just in time for him to disappear.

Red lights started glowing in the distance, their number growing one by one until I could see at least twenty of them staring directly at me. "I don't think we're alone in here," Starco said. I scrambled to my feet and snatched my gun as fast as I could, running in the opposite direction. I jumped and blinked as fast and often as I could, but the Vex always appeared just behind me. I kept running only led by the thermal traces of my footprints that were only growing fainter the longer I ran. I turned my head around again and saw their red lights bouncing as they chased after me, but there was a small discrepancy. None of them were shooting.

The red bolts of plasma fire that I'd expected when I started running, had not come as of yet. I glanced at the motion tracker. It was blank. In my distraction, I hit that uneven area again, tripping after only a step and rolling until I hit a taller piece of the floor. The Vex closed on me within a matter of seconds, but just as they arrived, they disappeared like a cloud of dust dispersing into the air. They were gone, all of them. I lay on my back with my arms propping myself only slightly, staring into the once again still and murky darkness. "What was that?" I asked after staring into the dark for a long time.

"I...don't know. They must have been some sort of hallucination or shadow or something. I'm searching the records, but there's nothing like we just saw, probably because nobody has ever gotten out of the Garden alive."

"Let's hope that we're the only ones that will have to." I stood up and recovered my weapon. "We ought to destroy this place when we're done with it. Send a fleet of ships to bomb this place and eradicate any remaining Vex." I started walking again with Starco lighting the way.

"I have a feeling that the Cryptarchs and the Vanguard won't let you make that call."

I sighed. "If they don't, something's going to leak out of here eventually and send everything back into chaos."

"Welcome to war." I had to agree with Starco on that one. War often brought about the best and worst in people, especially the longer they went on. The cave kept stretching on and the darkness kept getting thicker to the point where it was dimming my HUD and my own vision. Starco's light didn't affect more than just a foot or two in front of me and even less in all other directions.

The floor turned rough again and was a little more unstable. Stones started moving slightly beneath my feet, causing me to start rushing from one rock to another, making them shift even further and leave ever-growing gaps between each platform. Small cracks of green light pushed through and gave me some guidance as to what waited for me below. As the rocks shifted, they gave off a small _thunk_ when they tapped another stone; it was a welcome nuance that gave me at least some assurance that I was going somewhere. I looked behind me and, like all of the other times, there were no Vex following me.

There was a sudden flash of green light as my back was turned. When I looked in front of me, many of the rocks that had previously been there were now gone. Green light now flooded the area so much that it nearly blinded me while my eyes were adjusted to the near pitch-black. I moved close enough to the edge to see over it and found myself staring into a seemingly bottomless pit. In a small _whoosh_, more of the rocks around me flashed out of existence. I could see a rock face in the distance, but I wasn't sure if I could make that jump. Not wasting any time to debate, I moved to the back of the small platform and got four jogging steps before I leapt into the air, waiting until the last possible moment to blink. I threw my hands out and blinked as far as I could, reappearing a few feet higher and closing on the rock face, but I was descending to sharply to land safely on the other side. The height I had gained quickly became negligible as gravity pulled me down to the endless abyss. I was going to be several inches short, but I made a desperate grab for the ledge anyway.

I grasped nothing but air for several moments, but then I felt something solid beneath my hands without any pain from the rock tearing away the gloves. Realizing my eyes had been shut, I opened them, and, to my amazement, I found myself hanging on to the ledge, dangling uncomfortably close. Wasting no time, I found some footholds and tried to pull myself on top. I grunted loudly as I strained to pull my heavy metal body over it. I tried moving my feet a little higher but couldn't bring myself to risk the jump because by the time I'd be able to blink, I would be too far down for the blink to actually work. I'd probably blink inside the rock and be crushed.

It was then that I heard the distant thumping a heavy footfalls. There was a line on the motion tracker. "What is that?" I asked quietly to Starco.

"I don't know," he responded. "It's probably not friendly though."

Every passing second brought whatever it was closer and closer to me, closer and closer to my death. I couldn't blink out of this, and that left me defenseless where I hung. As far as I could see, I could jump off without a blink and face the pit or wait here for the Vex to shoot me off or crush my hands until I let go and plummet to my death. None of those sounded appetizing, but that's what I was given. At any rate, I was about to die...again, but this time it was different. I practically accepted it. I was cornered without any way out and no way to fight it. The Fallen Captain caught me by surprise, and the rocks just squashed me. I was in the heat of the fight then, but here I was alone. Whatever it was coming was awfully close now. I had to make a choice, and Starco sensed what I'd decided. "Are you sure?" he asked glumly.

"There's no other way. I'm sorry," I said, hating to say every word.

"It's not your fault. We gave it our best shot." I looked around one last time, drinking in every detail of my grave…

And let go.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Arla fought against the restraints as hard as she could. In the darkness, she couldn't see what they were made of, but they were definitely there. Dea had stopped dripping whatever that was, but Arla couldn't tell if that was a good thing or bad. She tried to feel at least what the restraints were made of, but couldn't tell much other than they had absolutely no slack in them. Thermal vision didn't help because the body heat she transferred onto them only masked their shape and made her wrists look unnaturally large, the same with her ankles. Arla deactivated the thermal vision vision and hung limply in the darkness.

She had no idea where she was, but it was uncomfortable and almost sickening. The darkness was all but tangible as it flowed ceaselessly through the still air. It was like a black tide, ebbing in and out of her surroundings, its tendrils grabbing hold of her and then letting go just to grab her again. It was torturous and needed to stop or else she would go insane.

In the distance, she could see something. It was a small pinprick of light, steadily growing in size and luminosity. Not knowing what it wanted, she slumped forward pretending to sleep perhaps even play dead. The Vex unit stopped for a moment; there was a dull _thud_ and the sound of cloth rustling followed by more of the clanking. Arla dared a glance in its direction and saw that a Goblin approached from the front, isolated and ancient-looking. It stopped in front of her and stabbed her leg with its gun. It took all of her willpower not to move or make a sound despite the searing pain that laced her leg. Arla looked down at her belt and located her knife, cleverly tucked in a pouch. Her gun was gone, but that wasn't an immediate concern. She could handle one Goblin in close-quarters. Confident she was unable to do anything, the Goblin deactivated the restraints.

Maximizing her sudden freedom, Arla led with her leg and kicked off the Goblin's headdress. After landing, she grabbed her knife and stabbed in the white part of its torso, waiting until she was absolutely certain it was dead before pulling the knife out and placing it in its sheath. Arla looked at the gun the Goblin carried, pondering whether or not to pick it up and use it. It was oddly shaped but certainly looked usable. There was a scope on the top before dipping awkwardly into what looked like a barrel. The scope's red light made a small circle of bloody light on the ground but wasn't really able to light much more than a few inches around its spot on the ground. It reminded Arla of something rumored to be within the Vault of Glass. She picked it up and found that despite it being a Vex weapon, it fit her hands perfectly. Stargazer took a moment to scan the weapon. Arla found it strange that she'd said next to nothing since entering the Garden, especially after her capture.

"It's strange," she said. "Parts of this weapon are Vex but others are attuned to light. It's a fusion rifle unlike any I've previously seen called the Vex Mythoclast. This Goblin most definitely resided in the Vault of Glass before being summoned here. I'm guessing that the Heart is taking all the Vex it possibly can in order to flush us out and kill us."

"Is it usable?"

"You should be able to use it, but I really think that we should find your weapons as soon as possible?"

"Can't you just summon them back?"

"The darkness is too thick here for me to do much. You're going to have to rely on that gun for the time being. Just keep a lookout for your weapons, and I'll do my best from within."

"Well then, let's get moving." Arla stooped for a moment to relieve the Goblin of any ammunition it had on it. She found four batteries for the Mythoclast, one with extended charge. After checking the already inserted battery, she ran over to where she thought she saw Dea fall. After searching in the dark for several minutes, Arla found a relatively large puddle of liquid just below where she'd been only a couple minutes ago, but there was no Dea. It was like she'd disappeared into thin air. "She's gone," Arla concluded with a small gasp, standing up from the small puddle.

"I think she might have been moved to another location. You might have been too if you'd been unconscious like her." Stargazer moved her light with Arla's head as she looked up and around.

"Good riddance," Arla said, relieved and started walking towards where she thought the Goblin entered.

Stargazer paused for a moment before catching up. "That's a little insensitive don't you think?"

"Nope," Arla stated flatly as she walked down a tunnel with what looked like some sort of green light at the end.

"Are you even going to try and find her?"

"Oh we're going to find her. I'm just going to do it for Maximus' sake."

"So you don't think Dea's capable of wreaking the havoc she claimed she could?"

"Of course not," Arla said confidently. "One, no person who still has to go into the field with a gun has that much power in an organization in the Nine. I don't doubt she's an agent, but I do know that it would take a lot more than just her in order to cease a very lucrative trading scheme, especially one that only grows with each day."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Stargazer responded. "There have been people with that sort of power out in the field all the time. Think about the Fallen Archons and their cohorts. Valus Ta'aurc still walks among the Cabal prepared for battle."

"However, they're not as civilized as we are," Arla countered.

"Those comparisons are only relative to the things being compared. A world leader may not be as powerful as a military general, but that same leader may have more allocated power than other world leaders."

"The Fallen are pirates and the Cabal are just imperialistic brutes that are never satisfied with destroying just one species."

"Humanity still has pirates roaming space and have you ever considered what Guardians are?"

"We're not like them though. We fight for the light and they for the darkness."

"But isn't good and evil only relative?" Arla stopped and clenched her fists. "They might see us as a darkness that is cornered and almost eradicated. The City generally doesn't see Guardians as a fighting force serving a broken planetoid. You saw how that kid looked at you and how all those people tried to touch you, which I still find barbaric and quite stupid, but...I digress. Fact is, that to them, you are a war hero and a protector of all their lives."

This isn't what Arla considered part of being a Guardian. There were thoughts set in motion that she never thought would ever start. Doubts she'd never considered. "You're starting to sound like Dea," Arla spat bitterly.

"And you're beginning to sound like a teenager," Stargazer retorted. Just then, a faint noise reverberated off the walls somewhere closer to the green light. It sounded someone or something was struggling up ahead. Stargazer and Arla looked at each other for only a moment before coming to a silent agreement. Disregarding what she could not see, Arla broke into a run and sprinted toward whatever that noise was.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I shut my eyes, not wanting to anticipate the end, and let my fingertips slide off the ledge without any further resistance. Suddenly, one arm jerked awkwardly up and to the side. "No you don't," a voice groaned under obvious strain. I looked up and saw Arla, leaning dangerously over the ledge, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me back up. I grabbed her arm with my free hand and planted my feet onto the cliff face. Assisting as much as I could, she pulled me up and over the ledge. Once I was over, she let go and flopped on the ground, heaving in one exhausted breath after another.

I was sitting against the wall and looking back over where I came. The other side was diminutive from where I was, a testament to just how much ground I covered in that one blink. Arla eventually pulled herself off the ground and sat next to me. Neither one of us spoke for several minutes in an attempt to let the other speak. Her breathing had slowed a considerable amount, but I knew she had to be tired from running this way and then hefting me, no small feat. I wound up speaking first. "Where's Dea?" I asked.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Arla joked.

"That's not what I meant," I said, backtracking. "It's just that you're obviously fine, and since Dea's not here, that means something went wrong."

"Honestly Maximus, I don't know. Everything seemed to be fine when I had that vantage point, but I don't remember anything after bit knocked off and hitting the ground. The first thing I remember between that and now is waking up and being stuck to a pillar. Dea was hanging like I was not too far away. It looked like she was leaking something or bleeding. Couldn't see much else in the thermal. Then, a Goblin wandered into the room and dropped both of us on the ground. I dealt with it quickly but Dea was gone as if she were a phantom."

I had no doubt she was being truthful, but I couldn't help but notice that her tone seemed a bit passive. It almost felt like she didn't care whether or not we found her, but I decided not to bring that up. "Any idea where she could've gone?" I asked instead.

"None. My guess is that they disposed of her dead body. The puddle of fluid was not small. Where have you been all this time?"

I placed my head against the wall. "That's a long story," I stated. "One I don't think we have time for. In short, I escaped and have been wandering the Garden for who knows how long at this point. It's been eerily quiet and lonely."

"But you're alive, and that's what really matters." We sat in total silence for a few seconds before Arla spoke again. "I need a vacation after this."

I could tell that it was mostly a throwaway statement, but I played along. "I have to agree. I think I'm a couple centuries too old for this," I said in a joking manner.

She gave a small chuckle. "I'm serious Maximus. I think that I might take a few weeks off just to regain my bearings and sanity. This last month or so has thrown me through several loops. Maybe I'll play a few more games with the Sunsingers or try to join one of the real teams in the City."

"I'm sure that someone with your status would have no problem, but first things first. We have to get out of here, and that path leads straight through the heart."

"Kind of like Dante's Inferno?" Arla asked.

"I think so. Only our nemesis won't be encased in ice."

"So then, who's Virgil, metaphorically speaking?"

"In this case, _she_ is currently missing," I answered. "I get the feeling she knows more about this place than she's willing to let on. Let's get moving. You said she was bleeding right?"

"Sure looked like it."

"Then we need to find her before the Vex finish her off," I continued, standing up. "If they haven't already," I muttered to myself. I extended a hand to Arla and pulled her to her feet. I looked back momentarily at the pit behind me, silently mocking what would have been my grave.


	32. Heart of Darkness

Chapter 32

Heart of Darkness

Arla and I kept moving through the Garden's many chambers and pathways for several more hours before she had to stop and eat something. I don't know how she managed to accomplish it through her helmet, but I scouted further ahead while she ate and rested. I needed some time to sit as well, but "there ain't no rest for the weary." The Heart was not going to kill itself, and Dea was not going to miraculously escape given Arla's vague description of her while they were captured. After a few minutes, I heard Arla trying to catch up behind me. Once she caught up, she nodded, and I continued forward, trying to move quickly while simultaneously navigating the near pitch-black of the covered pathways until we found an section that opened up into the green-tinted lighting of the Garden.

Arla hadn't seen any Vex since the one she killed in her escape, and I hadn't seen one since fleeing that battle who knows how long ago, but when danger seemed to spike, she pulled out a much larger golden weapon that was oddly shaped, the barrel and body not connected in a straight line. Both of us had lost all track of time. Judging by the rises and falls of whatever light source was here, we'd been here about three days, but there was no way of telling how much time had actually passed because of the Garden's apparent disjoint with the flow of time and space. It was almost like this place was within a black hole, but I immediately disproved that thought because of the night-day cycle that governed wherever the Garden actually was.

Everything was still eerily and uncomfortably quiet, but it was nice to have at least one of my teammates back. However, it was becoming increasingly apparent that Arla was quickly losing heart. Every passing hour begot yet another cave or more tall pillars of rocks, and with every next winding path, Arla walked just a little slower. Every now and again, she would slow down somewhat and mute her microphone. I could only imagine what she was saying or doing during that time, but I had a hunch I probably didn't want to know. I pictured her face, the blue-green skin getting a little more red as salty sweat and tears streamed down her face. She pressed on though, stayed strong through each step. She wasn't wrong though. I too was starting to have doubts whether or not we were going to find our way out of here.

We kept walking, countless step after countless step. Eventually, the metal and stone roofs that covered parts of the walkways ceased, once again revealing with no threat to being covered up again. Parts of the path began to look more worn and recent. Pieces of scaffolding worked their way up to higher ledges whilst fresh footprints evidenced an evil presence not too far away. Accompanying these footprints was a rough and uneven part in the plant matter covering the stone. "Look," I said, motioning to Arla.

She came closer and took a look. "It looks like something was dragged through here."

"You think it could be Dea?"

"That's certainly a possibility. Let's follow it and see where it goes." Arla began following the trail, but I quickly stopped her. "Hold up," I said. "Come here again." There was something coating the plants. Originally, I mistook it for some defense mechanism from the plants, but upon another look, it was definitely not coming from the plants. Arla knelt down next to me as I placed a couple of fingers in the plants and swiped. A thick blue-green substance coated my fingertips. "Dea is definitely bleeding and pretty badly. We need to find her as soon as we can." Not needing any further prompting, Arla started following the path closely yet making sure not to step in it for whatever reason. I followed close behind but kept my gun at the ready just in case something decided to jump us.

The trail continued for about 300 meters until it stopped abruptly, only being replaced by footprints from then on. "It just stops," Arla stated upon discovering this. "If they killed her, there's no body left." There was a deeply buried hint of almost pleasure in those words.

I stooped to the ground to examine the end. The last twenty feet of the trail swerved madly left and right, very uncharacteristic of an unconscious prisoner. "I think Dea woke up and ran off," I stated.

Arla placed a hand on her hip and looked at me for a moment. "She's lost a lot of blood, liquid, whatever you Exos bleed." I shook my head and sighed. Arla ignored that. "Either way, she shouldn't have the strength to fight off whatever held her captive."

"I don't think she did," I said standing up and walking off to the left. "I think she ran off." I pointed to some footprints different from all of the others, more indicative of a boot rather than a metal foot. Like the trail, small drips of the blue-green liquid smothered the plant life. The bleeding had definitely picked up, and that did not bode well for someone who'd already lost a fair amount. Realizing that her time was even more limited than before, Arla and I picked up the pace and practically sprinted as we followed the prints.

The prints and fluid would go straight for a while before swerving off to the left or right suddenly but shockingly clean. As we went on, the steps got continually sloppy though. At one point, there was a small area of crushed plant where she must have fallen or slid as she tried to turn a sharp 90 degrees. As we pressed on, the path got continually narrower, walls of plant-covered stone steadily closing in on us to the point that any claustrophobe would have lost it.

The skids in the gravel and plants grew more frequent until they culminated into an extremely large one that went sideways until stopping at a silhouetted wall. We quickly approached the wall and found a figure slumped over in the shadows. We quickly kneeled and pulled the figure out of the shadows to get a better look. I unclipped the tattered cape and attached hood, tossing them unceremoniously to the side. Her eyes were dark and body battered and motionless. Plasma burns dotted several parts of her blue and silver armor with that same blue-green substance caked around each wound. Wasting no time, Starco flashed in and scanned her crippled body. "I can't tell how conscious she is, but she isn't dead...yet. We need to act fast and stop this bleeding or else she will die within the next few minutes."

"Give me whatever remains of the smart-cloth. White if we've got any." A cylinder of durable white fabric appeared next to me. "Arla carefully lean Dea against that wall but not in the shadows." She quickly grabbed Dea under the arms and pulled her up against the stone wall. I pulled the edge of the fabric and started circling her torso with the cloth, transferring the container from hand to hand as I wrapped her as tight as I could without actually hurting her. After that, I applied some to the burns on her left leg and right arm. It was a rough job, but it had practically stemmed all of the bleeding after a few minutes. Starco scanned her again. "I think she'll be ok for now," he said. "If we had found her only a couple minutes later, she would have died. I don't know how long she'll be out, but I think it's a good time for everyone to rest."

"I couldn't agree more," I replied. "Here Arla, you sleep first. I'll take first watch." Starco despawned what remained of the cloth while I stood up, moving Dea's gun next to her.

Arla turned around. "As great as that sounds Maximus, I'll take first watch. After all you've done the last couple days or however long it has been, you deserve it." She slid her gun into her hands.

I put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Please Arla, I insist. You need to sleep to live. I don't. Let me take first watch." Arla spun around and lightly jabbed the barrel of her gun into my gut, forcing me into the wall and sliding down. "I'm not asking this time," she said intensely. "Go to sleep, or I'll do it for you." With that, she turned around and left me to power down for at least some time.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Something was shaking me awake, knocking my limp head back and forth and causing the helmet covering it to grind against the wall. I opened my eyes and saw exactly what I'd seen for a while now: tall pillars of vine-covered stone with equally dull and living metal and rock floors. Darkness flowed through the air like an unseen putrid river. Arla shook my shoulder again until I said, "I'm awake. I'm awake." She flopped onto the hard ground next to me and muttered "Ow, shouldn't have done that."

"Anything happen?" I said groggily, my systems taking their time to get back up to speed.

"Nothing but silence. Well actually Starco, Stargazer, and I had a little conversation over the last few hours, but other than that nothing."

"Hey Starco," I called. He floated over to where I was. "What's Dea's status?" He flashed a blue cone of gridded light over her and backed up to where I was, turning quickly.

"She seems to be recovering," he stated. "Her fluid levels are almost back to normal, but she should be unconscious for at least the next four hours before everything is back in working order. I stood up and stretched, joints and servos popping back into place. I grabbed my weapon and slung it on my back, clipping it back in place for the first time in a while. I also made certain that my sidearm was clipped in place within its holster. I looked back at Arla; she was already sprawled out on the ground in the shadow breathing deeply, no doubt asleep, however she had her knife in one hand and a hand cannon in the other. Something other than the glint of metal flickered off the blade. I waited a few more minutes and then walked over to where she lay.

I quietly looked over the knife's blade, trying not to accidentally wake her. A blue-green liquid coated the blade and looked strangely like Dea's blood, immediately making me think that she'd done something to Dea. Still trying to remain quiet, I crept over to where Dea sat propped up against the wall and looked over the makeshift bandages. There were a few places where some liquid soaked through a couple of layers, but nothing had bled all the way through. There was no evidence of any stab wounds, but I still had my suspicions. "I told you she was alive," Starco iterated.

"Are you sure? Arla had some of what looked like Dea's blood on the blade of her knife."

"No, no, no. Arla was swiping at the grass Dea rolled in when she fell down. There was some blood still there, so when she swiped, it got on the blade. Don't worry, Arla's more loyal than randomly deciding to kill her own teammate."

"I don't know. She seems to be somewhat put off by Dea's presence."

"Well, who could blame her? You did let a complete stranger into your fireteam. If I were a Guardian, I'd feel somewhat threatened by a stranger, a powerful one at that, butting into my business and claiming to help. Our time with the Awoken certainly did not help."

"In all fairness, Prince Uldren is not the kindest of people."

"Granted. The point remains though. My question is: Will she be gone after this is all over?"

I thought that over for a minute, trying to find some hidden meaning behind his words. Not finding one, I said, "I don't think we'll see her much after this."

"Good," Starco replied. More eerie silence entered and brought a sense of finality along with it. I blinked as high as I could up one of the walls and carefully climbed the rest of the way up using the fine edges the jutted out every so often. At the top, the Black Garden spread out endlessly with that mountain looming in the distance, however it was much closer this time. If it wasn't for the prevalent danger, I could almost see this place as being beautiful in its unique way. It's natural; it's machine; it's both. Despite it being mostly stone and metal, there seemed to be a living quality about it something distantly familiar. Creepily familiar.

The green light slowly dwindled behind the mountain and cast growing dark shadows over the Black Garden. The shadow gradually extended to where we were and brought with it stronger currents of the Darkness. Several hours passed with relative silence. Starco and I spoke for a few minutes at a time, mostly meaningless small talk that went nowhere and meant nothing in the long run. Off in the distance, I could see the red lights of a Vex soldier's eye peering through the cracks in the raised pieces of the Garden. None of those were anywhere close to where we were camped.

When the light started appearing at my back, I jumped down and blinked to shorten the fall. Arla had been sleeping for around six and a half hours, and we needed to get moving before the Vex eventually found us. Just as I was about to wake Arla, I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. I spun around and saw Dea standing confidently in the growing light. The bandages remained as did various skid marks and stains I hadn't noticed before, but she seemed to be just as well as she had been before everything went south.

"You continue to surprise me Maximus. Just when I think I've got you figured out, you always do something I didn't expect," she said. The comment struck me as curious given what she'd been through.

"That's an odd way to thank someone for saving your life," I responded. "You're lucky we found you when we did."

"I didn't mean to sound ungrateful. It's just that I know I've been...difficult. I haven't meant to, but it's how we're trained in the Nine. They teach us to work alone and trust nobody. They told us never to stay in one spot for too long or else we'll be tracked, discovered and killed. I know it's pretty cliche sounding, but there's a good reason we operate in the shadows and only assist when it's absolutely dire."

"That's a little contradictory to how you've acted. You seem to trust at least me somewhat."

"Who said I trust you?" Dea asked folding her arms and suddenly getting defensive.

"If you didn't, you wouldn't have just told me all of this." I folded my arms as well.

"You saved my life, simple as that. I saw myself indebted to you in some way, so consider the debt repaid. We need to get moving; we've already spent way too much time here as it is, and the Heart is not dead."

I understood her haste. I shared the same opinion: the longer we stayed here, the greater chance we ran in the Garden corrupting us and taking us. "Alright then, let me wake Arla, and we'll be off." She nodded as I turned around. While I gently shook her shoulder, Arla woke up, gathered her things and prepared to leave. She groggily stumbled along for the first few minutes but quickly forced the sleep out of her eyes and soreness from her muscles.

Dea led the way through the Garden despite her banged up appearance. We walked in relative silence that was broken only by the whooshing sound of Dea relaying a quick hand signal usually telling us to get our head down or stop for a moment. Every few hundred feet, she would stop and stare at the wall closely. Then she would turn back to the path or make a turn where necessary. We continued down a long corridor, and I knew we were getting much closer when the already strong dark influence only waxed stronger, almost to a point where it felt like its tide threatened to wash me away completely.

Starco noticed my uneasiness and discomfort. "I know. I feel it too. The darkness is only getting thicker from here on. However, I have made an important discovery. This place is essentially one giant machine, every piece does a job and reports back to the Heart via electronic impulses. It can even detect minute changes in weight or temperature."

"Like nerves," Arla added.

"Exactly," Starco replied. "It's almost as if this place were actually living...Scary."

"You're not far off," Dea confirmed. "The Black Garden is just about as living as Maximus and myself. The Heart of the Black Garden functions more as a heart and a brain, receiving those signals and dispersing what it believes to be a suitable task force to deal with whatever problem has arisen. It's been tracking us this entire time."

Starco thought about this for a moment and then asked, "If it knew where we were at all times, then why didn't it send something to kill Maximus and me while we were separated?"

Dea chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? You were doing exactly what it wanted you to do: go the wrong way." That made sense. Why deal with a problem that would likely resolve itself in a matter of days? As long as it continued on a path of self-destruction, there was no reason to waste valuable resources on that problem, but something still bothered me about my time alone. "What about the hallucinations? While Starco and I were in a cave, some Vex chased after us, but when I fell and they caught up, they simply disappeared," I asked.

"I'm...not sure I understand. You saw Vex that weren't there?" Dea seemed perplexed verbally but continued walking steadily. Arla slowed down and was walking next to me, glancing at me every once in awhile like I said or did something she couldn't believe. Whilst she was thinking, Dea noticed the growing distance between us and slowed up so we were only a few feet apart. "I've never heard of that happening. Then again, nobody that's entered the Garden with our intent has lived to tell the tale in person. Since you're not technically an organic like Arla, it might have mistaken you for one of its own troops and needed to make sure. That means that the Darkness has pierced you at least somewhat." Dea thought for a moment. "Have you had any direct contact with the Darkness? Even accidental."

"You saw what condition my armor was in that night at the warehouse."

"That would do it. Do you feel as though it's a physical presence? Kind of like an increase in pressure?"

The pressure the Darkness seemed to exert appeared to only strengthen at that point as I became acutely aware of it. "Yes."

"I feel it too," Arla added. Suddenly, she grabbed her head. "I...I think it's increasing. Like...like a...migraine." Her voice started getting more and more pained as she spoke as if something was stabbing her. She dropped to her knees and fell toward fighting unconsciousness but never actually able to find its comparative bliss.

A searing hot blade suddenly pierced straight through my head and spread across my body. Bright orange-white streaks of light blotted out parts of my vision as I too dropped onto a knee. I held my head in absolute agony, only able to listen to my own agonized screams mix with Arla's into a searing cacophony. Dea was shouting something I couldn't hear over the screams, let alone understand as the pain was starting to interfere with my basic functions. The hot streaks suddenly turned pitch black, spreading across my vision until it engulfed it completely. I couldn't see, but through the pain, I could feel a distant sensation of being dragged. Pained screams mixed with strained groans with the sound of something being dragged across gravel. Fiery pain shot up and down every piece of my body, enveloping my being into its raging inferno.

As quickly as it began, the pain subsided. Remnants of it lingered, but my vision and other functions started reactivating and pushing towards operational. I opened my eyes and pushed myself back onto my knees. Red streaks blazed paths through the air to my right. Arla found reprieve and was lying facedown on the ground. My vision remained somewhat clouded, but I could see enough. I staggered to my feet and pulled out the Multi-Tool. Numerous Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Minotaurs were slowly advancing. Dea was across the path, leaning out every few seconds to let off a few volleys from that yellow pulse rifle of hers. Arla and I were in some sort of alcove that was somewhat offset from Dea's but still able to be considered "across." I tried to wave away small dark streaks in my vision to no avail, but I somehow stumbled my way over to the edge of the alcove and pressed myself against the wall.

I checked the magazine, replaced it, and grabbed the gun at the scope with my left hand. In my right, I clenched a scatter grenade. Leaning out ever so slightly, I figured out where I needed to place the grenade: right in between an Axis Minotaur and similarly ranked Hobgoblin trying to take out Dea from range whilst the grunt Goblins distracted her up front. I memorized that spot, went back in cover, and readied the grenade. I pushed off the wall and leapt into the air, tossing the grenade just before I blinked into Dea's alcove. "What was that," I asked partially listening to the surprised screeches of the Vex as several of them exploded in a flurry of exploding purple light.

"No time. You alright?" she asked between volleys of shots. Red beams continued to scream past her.

"I've been better," I started, taking a spot against the wall and motioning her back within the relative safety of her alcove. "Head hurts like crazy, but I'll live." I leaned out a fired several shots into the advancing mass of Vex.

"You won't be for long if we don't get rid of all these Vex. Get back to the other side and keep them from having a clean path to Arla."

"Good idea," I said. I let off a couple more shots before I sprinted across, sliding as I neared the wall. Arla was still out cold, but I was sure that she'd wake up at any moment. Of course she'd probably need a longer time to get reacclimated. If that was the case, I needed to buy her as much time as I could. I swapped the Multi-Tool for my hand cannon and prepared myself. I set my right foot sternly on the ground and spun on the heel, bringing my left foot around in order to face the Vex head on. I unleashed all eight bullets rather quickly, quickly destroying five of the Goblins advancing. I ducked under several shots from the Hobgoblins at the back as I reloaded.

I sprinted forward, running right through the thick of the pack whilst firing at them. Several of their shots intended for me careened into Vex unfortunate enough to be in their path. I was getting closer to the Minotaur at the very back. I leapt over another one of the bolts from a Hobgoblin and quickly returned the favor without missing. Another bolt came right for my head, but a quick slide and even quicker shot brought that sniper to its knees before falling over dead. I picked up the pace, trying to close the gap on the Minotaur enough that anything it shot would just go over my head.

The Minotaur's giant form loomed over me increasingly as I neared it. As I continued running, it leveled its weapon at me and fired hot purple plasma that just barely missed my head on multiple occasions. I fired two shots at its torso. The first knocked out its purple shielding, and the second sent it reeling from the impact. I jumped into the air to finish the job, utilizing my gathered momentum to launch myself into the air with a charged melee. Suddenly, red flashed over my HUD as my momentum suddenly sent me spiraling down and to the left instead of straight and up. My shields were gone along with a decent chunk of my armor; my side erupted in a crippling pain. The pain in my head intensified and blurred my vision, but I somehow fought through it enough to see my weapon lying not too far away from my hand. I had just barely grazed the grip when a powerful fist seized me about the torso and torpedoed me into the wall next to it. I hit it at full force horizontally, most of the hit being focused on my left arm. I stayed stuck to the wall for only a moment before plummeting down face first into the gravel. My head and arm pulsated with pain, begging for it to stop with no such luck. I rolled onto my right side and tried to make sense of the blurry shapes in front of me. Almost everything was a black mass with small strips of red and purple sprinting through it. Amongst the sea of black was a silver and blue blob mounting the black until part of it crumbled beneath it.

I pushed myself onto my hands and knees and tried to stand on my feet. However, I was successful for a fleeting moment as a black mass suddenly descended on me and pinned me to the ground. My arm shrieked with fiery pain as I struggled to just lay flat on the ground. Eventually, I was able to get myself free enough to have my back being pressed into the ground rather than my side. Trying to ignore the pain in the one arm, I pushed the black mass trying to smother me up and tried to slide it off of me. Its weight continued to crush me though and didn't allow me to get good enough leverage to move it enough for me to slide out. I blinked a few times to clear my vision, proving moderately successful in making a few more defined lines, but I still saw mostly in black masses with the blue and silver one darting between them.

I gave up on trying to move it on my own. Instead, I looked at the upside-down battle taking place behind me. My vision started to improve little by little until I could clearly make out Dea leaping around, firing her yellow pulse rifle as she ran along a wall or during a high jump. There was something in her ferocity and instinct that made each leap and run look as effortless and elegant as they were deadly. Each step seeming two ahead of any reading the Vex had. Then she started to blur. At first, I thought it was my vision, but it quickly became apparent that she was moving much faster than anything I'd ever seen. Seeing some sort of opportunity, Dea stopped in the middle of one of the walls and jumped in the middle of the Vex, spinning in fast circles until her form was replaced with a rapidly expanding sphere of electricity that consumed most of the space. Suddenly, I was flying through the air as everything detonated around me, bouncing me off an explosion and sending me hurtling on top of one of the walls, dragging my face through the plant matter as I slid to a halt, ending with a last second roll onto my back.

Now everything hurt. Arms, legs, torso, and especially my head. The fuzz that had steadily been clearing returned with a vengeance; not only was most of my vision unable to show basic shapes, but it was also starting to go dark at the edges. My armor and shielding recovered, helping somewhat, but I was still trying to refocus my vision. Once more, I somehow made it to my knees, and from there I stiffly made my way to a standing position. I limped over to what I determined was a ledge and peered over, looking for any sign of Dea. Unfortunately, I couldn't separate the walls from the floor, making this ledge-finding seem a little miraculous. I didn't see any streaks of red or purple, so if the Vex were still there, they weren't shooting. Of course, that meant that they had killed Dea, or she'd run off again. Then again, if that explosion was enough to lift me this far up when I was pinned beneath a Minotaur, I wouldn't count on any of them to still be alive.

Still unable to see for the most part, I jumped down and blinked onto the ground. In some mysterious way, the blink cleared my vision just enough so that it looked like it was slightly grainy. Dea was lying on the ground but still breathing. Charred pieces of Vex of almost every configuration littered the ground. It shocked me at just how effective the single move was at eliminating this many Vex. Despite the pain, I ran over to where she lay.

She was alive, but I couldn't say much more. Several of the wounds I patched up had reopened and stained the bandages deep blues and oranges. New holes and plasma burns decorated her cloak, but I discovered that was where most of them stopped. The mask she wore to protect her face was completely shattered, marring my view of her face. Knowing it was only there to protect her face, I carefully pulled it off and tossed it to the side.

When I first saw her, I thought she was unconscious, but after removing the mask, I saw that she was staring at me, through me, as if seeing deep within me. She said nothing at first as if figuring out what to say. Eventually she said, "Now you owe me one." I laughed, grabbed her hand, and helped her up.

"That was quite the move you pulled," I commented. "Don't think I've seen something like that before."

"You have your Super Charge. I've got my Overload. That's all I'm saying." I located my weapon and placed it back in its holster. Dea swept the pieces of Vex, ensuring that they were all dead and wouldn't be able to track us. After she was done, we walked back to the alcove where Arla was still lying unconscious. We both sat down rather stiffly, me more so than her. "What was that?" I asked.

"That was what the Heart deemed necessary to destroy us. Considering we just destroyed it, we need to get out of here as soon as we can before another much larger wave comes." Dea adjusted her sitting position and reclined against the wall.

Meanwhile, Starco said something quietly only to me. "Maximus, that 'Overload' Dea was talking about. There was something strange that happened."

'_Strange has been about all we've seen in here hasn't it,' _I responded mentally.

"No. I mean strange even by our standards. After she wiped out those Vex, there was a space-time flux centralized around her."

'_We are in the Black Garden, home of the Vex. You know, space-time altering beings.'_

"That's not what I mean. Normal Exos can't warp time the same way she did. I don't know how she did it, but I think there's a little more to her, and to an extent, the Nine."

'_I never thought that it would be a cut and dry thing. After all, if everyone knew everything about them, kind of spoils the "secret organization" label. We can deal with that problem later. Let's focus on getting out of the Garden.'_

Starco remained silent as we sat, waiting for Arla to wake up. At some point, I shut down not really meaning to. I think Dea did too.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Out of nowhere, I felt something yank me to my feet. My systems immediately powered up just as whatever it was let go of my arm. Off balance in more ways than one, I nearly crashed into the wall before a blurry figure snatched my arm again to prevent that from happening. Everything came into focus quickly without any noticeable hindrance. The dark tinting and blurriness were gone, replaced by the panic of being sudden awoken. Purely out of memory, I snatched the hand cannon out of its holster and immediately pointed it at whomever yanked me up. As my eyes adjusted though, I realized it was Arla that pulled me to my feet, and I started to replace the gun, but she quickly stopped me. Wordlessly, she pressed herself against the wall opposite of me and took out her own hand cannon, a red-orange one I'd never seen her use before, and creep her way down the walls. Dea was already at the end of the alcove waiting for us, her weapon drawn and at the ready. We continued silently crept against the wall, but without warning, Arla grabbed my robe and forcefully moved me to the same side as her and Dea.

Once we met up with her at the edge of the alcove, Arla immediately drew her knife and crouched, leaving both of us behind. Dea crouched and peered around the corner, allowing me to do the same standing up. Several Vex, though not nearly as many as last time, patrolled the area, likely looking for us or our battered remains.

Arla kept low and to the growing shadows the setting light and walls cast on the ground beneath. She crept behind a Goblin, and, in two swift moves, stabbed it in the chest and pulled it into the dark shadow with her. She kept moving closer to more of the Vex, but the wall obstructed my view, so I opened a video link but muted my mic. I opened it just in time to see her place a trip mine near several Vex and back away in our direction. Arla swung her head around when she was far enough away and signaled to us to move in, but I couldn't help but notice how bad both Dea and I looked.

I could see the obvious damage on hers, but mine was worse. My robe had large holes and burn streaks across its surfaces. The helmet paint was scuffed, but I couldn't see how bad because of the distance between myself and Arla. Her armor was in rough shape but was faring far better than mine.

Dea and I bolted around our cover, firing our weapons while dodging theirs as we ran. Arla grabbed her Golden Gun, destroying two Minotaurs and a Hobgoblin in three well placed incendiary rounds. Dea took to the wall and swapped between the two sides overhead as vast amounts of fire split the air to where she once was. As I approached, I diverted any extraneous power to my gauntlets and started growing an orb. Our ambush on theirs taking them completely by surprise, the Vex immediately fell into disarray (by their standards). Goblins and Hobgoblins started grouping around the couple of remaining Minotaurs.

Just as I entered the space, I leapt into the air and unleashed a powerful Nova Bomb, two of the orbs of energy destroying each of the remaining Minotaurs and those around them. On the way down, I picked out one of the Vex and meleed it in the face as I forced it to the ground, draining what remained of its energy to replace the spent reserves of my own. I grabbed my hand cannon and shot a round into its white spot, immediately followed by two shots on either side of me to destroy the two Goblins that were there only moments before.

A Hobgoblin's bolt seared the ground next to me. Wasting no time, I rolled away as several more bolts impacted the ground. I tossed a grenade between two Hobgoblins and watched them explode almost instantaneously as showers of purple light surrounded and destroyed them. Dea, still running along the walls, targeted a lone Goblin, the sole Vex remaining. She stopped on the wall and pushed off with her legs, firing one burst at it before entangling it into her roll. Now standing over it, she stared it in the eye, crushing its white area with her boot until the red light faded with a quiet cry. All the while, she was the white liquid stain the ground and cover her boot, almost reveling in the pain she was causing the grunt.

Everything was quiet for several long seconds. Arla and I just stared at Dea standing above the Goblin with the glowing liquid from her victim covering the bottom part of her boot. What she did was both cruel and awe-inspiring. Yes they were Vex, but these were pawns, and there was no use in using those kinds of measures to strike fear into the Heart when it probably didn't care. My experience with the Baroness was different than this. She was important to the Fallen and whatever House she belonged to; as far as I could see, this was just a grunt without any significance to the Vex. Once again, I wanted to question if she was actually helping us for a greater good but ultimately decided not to because of the long explanation Dea would give that we certainly did not have time for.

She shook the liquid off her boot, reloaded her weapon, and started following what she wanted us to believe was the correct path.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

To be frank, I thought the entrance to the Heart would be better guarded. My only guess was that we'd killed most of them on the way over here. That or they were all beyond the doors, standing in a long line, ready to terminate anything that opened the doors enough for a plasma blast to fit through.

There were three doors in total: two had some sort of locking mechanism on them whilst the remaining one had no apparent way to open it. High pedestals housed a single Hobgoblin each, while the terrain varied in height below them, snaking downward and back up the closer one got to the mechanized doors. In total, there was around a dozen Vex down there, undoubtedly lying in wait for us.

From our vantage point, Dea marked the two doors with the locking mechanisms. "You see those?" Arla and I nodded. "Those are Vex data clusters. Get your Ghosts to scan those and it'll activate the door to the Heart. Be quick about it as every moment we give the Heart, the more it calls from Venus, Mars, and worlds beyond to its aid."

"What about you?" I asked.

Dea pulled out a bulky-looking sniper rifle painted red and white with six black clamps in groups of three down its large barrel. "I'll be breaking the ice with the Vex from here." Starco's scan of the weapon called it the Ice Breaker, making the joke a little more obvious. I appreciated the pun a little more than Arla, who sighed and shook her head. "On my mark," Dea stated, raising the scope. "3...2...1…" She squeezed the trigger, the gun shrieked momentarily followed by a winding echo. A Minotaur below looked up only to see the shot scream right through it.

Immediately, Arla and I jumped into the fray as each of the remaining Vex divided up to come after us. On the ground, I veered off to the right whilst Arla took the left. Two Goblins and a Hobgoblin stood in my way from the winding hill leading to the data cluster. I slid underneath the concentrated stream of plasma from the Hobgoblin, dispatching the Goblins with two well-aimed shots from my hand cannon. Back on my feet, I jumped in the air, depositing a shot in its neck just before it kneeled and surrounded itself in a fiery stasis. A sharp sound from Dea's sniper rifle and the Hobgoblin was nothing but a memory.

I blinked halfway up the hill and fired a shot into a Goblin's back. It stumbled forward a couple steps just before I reared back and jolted a melee into it, its energy simultaneously filling up the reserves the rest of the way. Dea fired a pair of shots one right after the other on Arla's side. I turned a corner and saw an unguarded door made completely of metal with partitions of differing sizes and depths. A brass-colored mechanism adorned the center as well as a portion of it to the right. Starco materialized and immediately started scanning the data cluster. "We've started scanning the first one," I radioed.

"Copy that," Dea replied. There was a couple more shots that pierced the air. "Arla you should be clear now."

A couple moments later, "The second data cluster is secure. Scanning now."

I reloaded and continued marking both sides of the ramp, waiting for something to come over it, but nothing came. Instead, the Ice Breaker shot a couple more times. "There is a lot of stuff here," Starco said while scanning. "The encryption is somewhat confusing, but I'm starting to make sense of it, sort of." Suddenly, the ground started rumbling hard enough to throw me off balance. It continued for approximately a minute before settling down. The door flashed a bright white light for only a moment just after the shaking stopping.

"The heck was that?" Arla asked.

"A spire's forming," Dea answered. "Get over here! I'm going to insert the key." Starco and I moved back toward the center of the area and gazed at the gridded pillar of light that was beginning to form in the direct center. Slowly but surely, solid rock started appearing at the bottom, steadily growing upward. As it continued, there was a distinct circular shape, a hole perhaps, was left untouched near the top. The stone seemed to groan as the light streams faded away, leaving only the rock. Dea was already off the ledge, sprinting towards the tower and preparing to scale it. Arla was coming my direction and pointing to the door. "There's a new conflux," she yelled. "Come on!"

I immediately ran off the edge and used the pillars of stone as platforms all the way to the door. The conflux of light shined even brighter in the growing darkness. By now, the darkness' influence was tainting the air, blocking large swaths of the green light from reaching us. There was enough light to see, but as soon as that light source went away, everything would be pitch black once more.

Stargazer scanned the conflux just as Dea inserted the key atop the pillar of stone. Without warning, the conflux dissipated. Arla and I backed away with our guns on the gate to the Heart. It was circular with smaller circles moving outward Gridded light similar to the non-baryonic streams of the conflux appeared only for a moment before disappearing, replaced by what looked like a blue door. We approached it slowly, not sure what it was going to do. Arla slowly extended a hand to touch it. Just as her hand neared it, the "door" shot into the air like a rocket, spinning in a quick circle. The door stopped abruptly, appearing as though to be centered with the circular door. As soon as it stopped, the door broke into several strangely shaped pieces surrounding a circular core piece.

The core piece shot forward several meters, leaving the other pieces to float in the air independent of gravity or any other force. The circle stopped spinning in the air and moved backward, closer to the rearranged pieces. The center began to glow for only a moment before a beam of blue light shined through. I followed the stream of light all the way back to the key in the stone with Dea still standing on top, looking over everything that was happening at the door. I turned around to witness the light from the core connecting itself to all of the other pieces, creating what looked like a web of light connecting everything to the door like one giant circuit within the living machine. The light dissipated and the door rumbled before screeching open at the bottom, parting to the left and right and forming one wedge at the top. Pieces of scaffolding within the door parted with the folded wedges.

Dea now stood behind us, somehow getting from the pillar to us in a record amount of time. I cautiously stepped toward the door and passed underneath its metal frame. Arla and Dea came closely behind me.

In front of me was a semicircular piece of stone with what looked like bridges on either side. The edges of the land each led to a steep drop off and likely endless fall. Numerous Goblins and Hobgoblins knelt in a smaller semicircle with three stone giants praising something with their outstretched arms. I followed the center statue's gaze and found myself staring at the exact entity from my dream. A black mass surrounded by a nearly complete ring of orange tinted metal. Arcs of electricity pulsated throughout the constantly morphing blob of matter. In the background, the giant mountain loomed over everything with what looked like a green mist emitting from its distant top. The Vex noticing us, their arms clicked into place one by one, and as they clicked into place, each one turned around and stared directly at the three invaders their god had tried so hard to destroy. One of the arcs swirled out from the Heart, spiraling through the air before being absorbed by one of the stone statues. "Here goes nothing...or everything," Arla said, staring at the Heart and the mass of Vex bowing to it.

Starco flashed in almost blending in with the growing darkness if it weren't for the white spots on his shell and the blue eye. "You think you can kill a God?" he asked.

"I don't think we have a choice," I stated simply.

The Vex began to stand up and physically turn our way. Arla placed a hand on her Golden Gun, but Dea removed the hand, staring at the Heart watching over everything. I checked my weapons. Dea stepped forward, standing on the top edge of the steps that descended onto the semicircle of the battlefield. She held her weapon aloft for a moment, changing the magazine. I watched as the Vex began to fan out and wait for us to make the first move. "KILL THEM ALL!" Dea shouted, jumping past the stairs and opening fire on the Vex below. I followed closely behind, firing the hand cannon a couple times as I leapt down the stairs.

Upon landing, I looked around for the area with the most Vex. Unfortunately, most of them looked to be about the same, save for my right as Dea was taking them out quickly. Taking the best of both remaining options, I tossed a scatter grenade into the middle and took to the left. I quickly leveled two Goblins and had critically injured a Hobgoblin currently taking shelter in stasis. As before though, a quick shot from Dea's Ice Breaker demolished the robot. I leapt onto the bridge and a Goblin blasting me from each side, destroying my shields quickly. I ducked under a Hobgoblin bolt, shot one of the Goblins in the white spot, and sent a powerful palm melee into the other.

My side was almost clear, just a few Vex remained where I was. In a flash of red light, I was on my knee with my leg on fire. The Hobgoblin I dodged was much closer now and was charging up another shot, almost a guaranteed hit at this range. I pushed the pain out of my mind and rolled out of the shot in the nick of time, the heat of the shot scorching part of my helmet and one pauldron. I quickly leveled my sights on the its critical point and fired, destroying it into a puddle of fluid and parts. Then, I was on my face trying to get back on my feet. My vision swirled as I tried to see what hit me and from where. I tried standing up, but my hurt leg combined with the headshot didn't allow that in the slightest. Instead, I wound up flat against the ground.

I shut my eyes and waited for the final blow to come. Instead, the sharp noise of the Ice Breaker burst echoed endlessly off the walls and sliced the air above my head. A Vex behind me squealed in surprise not far behind me, the shot no doubt hitting its mark.

As my shields recovered, the pain dulled, and I could stand with only a minor ache remaining. Powerful arms lifted me to my feet. I turned to see Arla helping me up while keeping a track of any action behind us. "Gotta stay on your feet," she said as she hauled me up.

"Thanks," I replied. "I'll keep that in mind."

Dea came over the comms. "Area clear. Keep vigilant though. Who knows what measures are in place to defend the heart." The three of us met in the middle, surrounded by those giant statues. Each of us stared at the Heart far above our heads. Unsure of what to do next, Arla unloaded a couple of rounds into the Heart, but they glanced off as if they had been peas against a steel wall. "I don't think we can kill it with conventional weapons," Dea stated, obviously forming some sort of hypothesis.

"You think these statues might have something to do with it?" Starco suggested. "I saw the Heart fire some sort of energy orb at the central one." As if on cue, the Heart shot several orbs of black and white energy into the leftmost statue. A sound akin to a small explosion echoed off the walls as cracks laced the outside of the statue. "It's bringing those statues to life!" Starco yelled. It spun in a slow circle, emitting a bright light and seeming to lower itself. Each of us marked the statue as we backed away slowly at first, but as soon as the thing exploded in light and jumped off its pedestal, we ran for cover. Black clouds of teleporting Vex thickened the dark air until it was almost opaque all the way through. "Get to cover!" Dea shouted. "Focus on the grunts first and then take out the Eschaton Mind."

I ran straight down the center path, absorbing several hits from the new wave of Vex but still intact. I pressed myself against the wall next to the bridge and kept watch for Goblins or Hobgoblins. Streams of plasma scorched the sides of the wall as they tried to pick me off. Dea took a position in cover atop the bridge whilst Arla did the same on the opposite. I was on the right bridge, but if I wanted to fire an accurate shot without being blasted to bits, I needed to get to the other side. Firing a few random shots as I moved, I swapped sides.

Once again, the Vex fanned out, trying to flank us and charge us through the middle. The Eschaton Mind looked like a Minotaur on steroids, standing at least as tall as the Gate Lord we fought if not taller. It shot much larger versions of the purple plasma blasts, causing Arla and Dea to duck to the ground level with me as they recovered. One by one we cut down the Vex. The Hobgoblins mostly stuck to the central area, providing easy targets for the Ice Breaker whenever Dea wasn't getting pelted by the Eschaton Mind.

And then, there was only the Mind remaining. It was three people on one, and our odds never looked so good throughout the entire garden. However, we quickly that t absorbed shots like a sponge, shrugging each slug and bullet off as if they were nothing more than flies. Several minutes passed with no apparent progress on the statue. Meanwhile, it had no problem giving each of us problems, easily calculating where we were going and when we swapped out to let another do some damage. What we were doing was negligible though, fruitless. We needed something that would pack a definite punch...something like a rocket.

I silently asked Starco for the Unfriendly Giant. In the blink of an eye, a heavy, black rocket launcher was perched across my shoulder and aimed at the Mind, currently dealing with Arla while Dea pumped meaningless shots from Ice Breaker into its stone and metal skin. I crouched beneath one of the bridges and called out, "Clear the way!" Dea made a fleeting glance in my direction and jumped toward the opposite bridge. I squeezed the trigger and immediately got pushed back a little from the recoil. Noticing the noise, the Mind turned my direction just in time to watch a rocket blow up in its face. The ground quaked as it took several heavy steps backwards to the edge of the platform. Seeing my opportunity, I fired the second rocket in the canister. This time, it struck it squarely in the chest, sending it stumbling backward even further. It paused though, just before going over, almost like it was sending one last message to its God, and then it tumbled over the edge.

However, there was no time to celebrate. Blinding pain in my head sent me screaming to my knees. I could only see hot streaks of light before I closed my eyes due to the pain. I heard a solid _thunk_ next to me and dared to open my eyes. Arla too was writhing in obvious pain, not only from the long fall but also because she had been touched by the Darkness too. Dea's voice melted into Arla's screams as well as my own. Out of nowhere, I felt myself being picked up and thrown into a wall. I could feel the Darkness' pressure and influence more than any other time. I could feel it sucking the life out of me, draining my light. I writhed and spasmed as fiery pain enveloped my body, and darkness rent my soul. Amidst the agony, I could hear explosions echoing somewhere far away. It was only a matter of time before they overwhelmed Dea and found us.

That was when something ignited. A fire that completely countered that which tried to tear my piece by piece. I threw open my eyes and stood up with ease. Light poured off my arms and legs like a beacon in the dark, a lighthouse in the storm. Power surged through me and into the air, eradicating any dark influence that may have there and destroying it instantaneously. I grabbed Arla's hand, the light spreading to her and cleansing her as I pulled her to her feet. She stared at me for a long couple of seconds before jumping to the bridge above our heads and pulling out her Golden Gun.

I sensed three entities of almost pure darkness: the Imminent Mind, Primeval Mind, and then the Heart. Both of the former actively trying to catch and kill Dea. I turned the corner and headed straight down the center pathway. Golden streaks from Arla's gun sped overhead and crashed into the one labeled the Imminent Mind. With each shot, it stumbled ever closer to the ledge until it toppled over the edge much like the one before it. The Heart of Darkness screeched horribly with a metal-on-metal quality to the sound, deafening all of us for only a moment.

Dea flew in overhead as I approached the middle. She spun in circles too fast for my eyes to track. Instead, she looked like a solid sphere above the Primeval Mind, spreading jagged arcs of electricity over it and then detonating until there was nothing left. The Heart overhead recoiled, explosions spreading across its surface. Everything shook violently, causing me to stumble for only a moment. I willed myself to stay on my feet until I jumped, channeling all of this resurging light along with all of my remaining energy into one concentrated orb growing in my hands.

I leapt into the air, looking only at the wounded Heart above me. My HUD began to fade until it disappeared completely. My sight darkened as I approached it. I pulled the orb to my side and unleashed it straight at the Heart of Darkness. I watched the purple-white orb soar through the air as I dropped like a stone. The orb smashed into the Heart in sync with me smashing into the ground.

The white quickly overpowered the purple and leaked into every atom of the Heart, changing it from a pulsating black to a panicking white. Light spread through the air, originating at the orb until everything ended in a glorious explosion of white.

I continued to lie on the ground motionlessly for several moments, staring at where the darkest known entity in the universe dwelled until only moments ago. I was stunned.

We did it. Against all odds, we killed a god. It was over, finally over, and now the City could fight another day. Starco appeared in front of my face, much like he did on that first day in the Cosmodrome. "We did it," he said. "We're back...on Mars, and the Vex's grip on this area weakens with every passing moment. Light returns to the Traveler. The Speaker is calling us home." There was a close shadow and a flicker of lights in the night sky, slowly descending over our battlefield. The ship stopped over me, a familiar form in an alien and torn domain. My surroundings shifted into the interior of the ship...my ship.

I sat up and tossed my helmet to the side. A single flash of light illuminated the cabin as Arla was blinked into the ship. She ripped off her helmet and saw me on the floor. Immediately, she tackled me back to the floor with tears in her eyes, screaming "We did it! We did it!" We hugged for a long time, her tears dripped off her face and onto mine. We didn't care what awaited us back at the was satisfying enough just to live in this moment.

Arla eventually let me go and helped me up. I looked around for any sign of Dea, but there was none. "What's wrong?" she asked, still smiling. Sweat matted her hair and made her face shine in the artificial light.

"Where's Dea?" I responded.

"I...I don't know," Arla shrugged. "As soon as everything ended, she disappeared in this weird flash of light."

"I didn't think she'd stick around." I went to the pilot's chair and shed my robe and weapons, hanging it on the back and taking a seat. There were plasma burns and holes mostly on the back, but they were all over both my armor and Arla's.

"What makes you say that?"

I spun the chair around. "I didn't think you liked her."

"I don't, but she did help us kill the biggest threat to the City, so she might as well get the honor that she earned."

I looked into her glowing eyes and saw complete sincerity behind them. "I'm sure that wherever she is, she's getting recognized for her efforts. Probably taking most of the credit I'd venture to say."

"So she used us?"

"Pretty much."

Arla sat down in a seat, her smile widening. "Y'know, that doesn't bother me as much as I though it would." I laughed and turned the chair around. Watching Mars surface grow blurrier and the planet itself smaller, I engaged the warp drive and headed for the Tower.

Everything remained silent and still as the ship travelled toward the Tower. I looked over my shoulder and saw Arla cleaning her knife. She turned and looked at me, slowly sheathing her knife and putting away the cloth. "What happened back there Maximus?" she asked.

"What?"

"The light glowy thing, right before you shot that orb into the Heart. It felt like...I can't describe it. What was it and how'd you do it?"

"I'm not really sure. I felt like I was sinking into a pit, and then something like a spark ignited whatever that was. " I paused for a moment. "Well, whatever it was certainly helped…"

"I know what it was," Starco cut in.

Both of us fell silent in anticipation of what the solution was. Starco didn't speak though; he just floated there. "Do tell," Arla prodded.

"Remember that time Maximus had to go to the hospital ward after he was struck by some beam of energy he swore came from the Traveler?" We both nodded. "That was the Traveler marking you for something. Maybe it sensed your future or something and knew you'd need it." Arla and I looked at each other. It made some sense, but I wasn't about to be the one to judge that sort of thing; it just wasn't my territory. "I know what it was; I just don't know the why. If you want that, you'll need to ask the Speaker, and something tells me you'll get plenty of opportunity to pick his brain from here on out," Starco backtracked.

"It makes sense to me," I said. Arla just shrugged and went back to cleaning her knife. I went back to staring at the many colors of the warp. I looked to the right side of the viewport and saw a small envelope with a 1 next to it. I tapped on the console and opened it on screen, dated for the day we set down on Mars. Ikora's face materialized over the lights of warp.

"Maximus, I understand that you are currently not on your ship, but there is something I need to tell you. Lee recovered whilst you were away, but we didn't want to risk sending him out into the field so soon, so we sent him to the wall. Don't worry yourself. There've been no more attacks since the one you helped stop not too long ago, but there was an incident. Your friend went to relieve himself after a shift and never returned for the following shift. We've tried tracking him, but we can't find his Ghost's signal anywhere, and we can only fear the worst. I'm sorry…" Her poker face was beginning to break down somewhat. Twinges of sorrow started to peek in at her eyes. "...but we believe that Lee is dead. As far as we can tell, there is no body to recover. However, we think that it may be connected to a series of other disappearances that have cropped up recently. When you return, we may have some theories as to what's going on. As usual, anything you've picked up from the field will certainly help. May the Traveler Light your path. Ikora out." The image snapped away.

Several thoughts swam through my head. I had a small feeling that something wasn't right when I saw Lee on Mars...when it turned out to be one of those Illusion grunts...when he killed me with Lee's gun. I knew he was dead and never coming back. Arla looked back with the physical expression of what I was thinking. Two and two came together, and she also realized why "Lee" killed me back on Mars. We said nothing but dedicated a moment of silence to his memory. I may not have known him long, but I knew we were all going to miss him.

The hole at the end suddenly grew, and the ship braked hard, throwing us against the restraints. In front of us was the blue orb we called Earth along with its Moon and the white spot above the land, the Traveler. There was something new about Earth but also something as old as time itself, a mark that was almost tangible. There yet not at the same time.

Despite our small sliver of safety, it felt like the world was ours once again. Staring at the blue orb and what all had come to pass, I welcomed the sight.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After a brief introduction, the Speaker proudly strode up to the podium perched in the center of the Plaza's upper level. Dozens of Guardians of varying classes, differing races, and assortments of colors stared at the Speaker standing over them. Countless others watched from their rooms or other places that broadcast the speech. The midday sun left only small shadows encircling the feet of anyone outside. Only wispy clouds disturbed an otherwise serene day. Below the Tower, the citizens had tied balloons and arranged massive parades to celebrate the victory and a newfound hope.

The Vanguard held up their hands from the front row to quiet what little noise there was. When they lowered them, the Speaker looked over everyone present and opened his mouth to speak. "For centuries, we feared the forces of Darkness massing against us," he began. "We sought to hide and cower, beneath a broken God..._No more._ These Guardians show us what we are, what we have always been, and what we will be again. We are what remains of the Light…"

I listened to the speech in the Hangar. Each word echoed off the metal walls and empty ships. Holliday wasn't at her post, but the gate to the deck was open and unguarded. I stepped off the bottom step and looked left and right, ensuring that nobody had followed me, not even Arla. Despite the crowds in the Plaza, the Hangar was empty...save for a shadowy figure at the end of the Hangar looking out over the City. Starco flashed in above my right shoulder but remained silent as we walked. Dea, fully healed and wearing a new hooded cloak in the same style, stood with her yellow rifle vertical, her back to us as we approached. I stopped next to her and met her gaze. The introduction to the speech finished at that precise moment, ending with "...and we will not be stamped out." Roaring applause echoed loudly into the hangar.

"Hello Maximus," Dea said.

"Afternoon to you as well," I replied politely.

She lowered her head. "I'm afraid we're going to have to skip the pleasantries today. Today's a day for pretty speeches and medals. But we know the real fight takes place out there. The Vex were only the beginning. That said, I want you to take this." She picked up the gun and it into my arms.

I tried to push it back towards her. "No. This is yours," I protested. Wordlessly, she pushed the gun back into my arms and let go. I put one hand underneath the barrel and the other at the grip, making sure to keep my finger off the trigger. "Thanks," I said, giving the gun one last look over before turning my gaze back to her.

"You'll need it," Dea said. "There's so much more, Maximus. I've seen terrible things born out of the Darkness. And every moment brings them closer." She looked back out at the City and the Traveler. "All ends are beginnings...our fight is far from over." She started to take a step towards the edge, no doubt about to disappear again, but I placed a firm hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"Are you sure you can't stick around awhile? You were the reason we were successful back there."

Dea turned around and looked at me, placing a hand on my shoulder and looking directly into my eyes. "I was not the sole reason the Garden was cleansed. You and Arla are far more capable than either of you give yourselves credit for."

"So I guess you have to go?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, I must. My path's my own, but I'm sure ours will cross sometime in the future." I watched her turn back towards the City, a stray breeze fluttering the end of her cape. She took a step toward the edge, and blue light began to outlined her. By the second step, she was gone. Continued looking out at the City, watching a colorful parade proceed toward the Tower.

More applause erupted from the Plaza as I walked up the steps. Arla was leaning over the railing overlooking the hangar. "Nice weapon," she commented with a smile. "I'm guessing Dea just gave that to you."

"How'd you know?"

"I saw the tail end of your conversation," she replied with a small shrug.

"Then, why are you here?"

"Well, when a certain teammate has to give a speech but doesn't show up, I have my ways of finding him." Arla started walking up the stairs, but I hesitated, looking back at the end of the hangar. "Come on Maximus, our public awaits."

I nodded and started walking up the stairs. "From here, the stars," I said, a mantra from one of the long-destroyed cosmodromes.

Arla looked back at me with a smile. "From here, the stars," she replied.

END

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A quick note before I end this story off. I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this story. If you've read it from the very beginning through the Autospell problems back in its early stages (before Chapters 5 and 6), I want to especially thank you and congratulate you because you just read the equivalent of a novel. If you skipped around, I still want to thank you for reading and encourage you to read the story in its entirety.

One last thing: **THIS ISN'T OVER!** Keep an eye out for

Destiny: The Lost House


	33. Sneak Peak at The Lost House

**Destiny: The Lost House**

**Chapter 1**

**Gravity**

**Lieutenant Charli Hendricks**

The lights suddenly flashed on, awaking anyone asleep and blinding those who were not . Alarms activated, their shrill sirens deafening anyone throughout the ship. Charli Hendricks, lying on her uncomfortable and worn bunk, somehow remained asleep despite the noise. Still within her own dreamland that was far away from the nightmares of her tour of duty, she continued sleeping soundly if not even deeper than before. Shouts to wake and suit up called out over the intercoms and replaced the sirens for only a few split seconds before resuming the shrill noises.

Charli stirred but only because her dream shifted to something a little more unpleasant, dark green shapes with two separate but indistinct facing skulking about the darkness, one side human and the other Fallen. Each one of these phantoms spoke in shrieked syllables that Charli could not begin to understand, but they stayed away from her, deciding only to watch her and speak their unintelligible tongue.

Unexpectedly, she felt as though she were falling, slamming into cold and hard tiles only moments later. Charli opened her eyes and saw a pair of heavy boots standing only inches from her face. Her ribs and head hurt from the fall from her bed. Strong arms hauled her to her feet as she struggled to open her groggy eyes. The strong hands took hold of her shoulders and shook her harshly, wiping away any sleep that remained. "Charli let's go!" her squadmate Chad Roundtree yelled as he shook her.

"I'm up, I'm up," she replied with an upheld hand. Men and women of varying humanity, ethnicity, size, and state of dress rushed from the beds that sat on the outline of the room to their respective locker in the center, grabbing any and all things they could need for whatever was happening. Charli listened to the siren as she dashed to her locker and threw it open. Two long shrieks followed by two much shorter ones, the boarding alarm. As if on cue, a husky male voice, slightly panicked, yelled over the intercom, "Attention all hands, attention all hands! We have been boarded! Grab your gear and proceed to the nearest armory. I repeat, we have been boarded!"

Without any hesitation, Charli changed into her flight suit, a form-fitting yet comfortable article capable of providing protection during assaults and maneuverability in the cockpit, and activated the nano armor that quickly rose from the surface of the suit, coating her arms, legs, and torso in a suit of thin but durable armor. Disregarding her hair, she quickly slipped the flight helmet on and activated its HUD. She grabbed her pistol and slipped the ammunition cartridges into the magnetic holds in the gaps in the utility belt she had clipped about her waist. In it were two frag grenades, a flashbang, and a portable ion cutter. Prepared, Charli turned to her right and saw Brent Simmons, her other squadmate, placing his helmet on his dark-skinned and bearded head, hitting it a couple times to ensure that it was securely fastened. "Ready?" he asked in his husky voice. Charli simply nodded and joined her brothers-in-arms in the crowd rushing helter skelter to find a defensible position close enough to the fray.

She followed them through the blinding white hallways and through a door on her right. Inside, the armory was basically stripped clean of any weapons and ammunition. Brent let out a choice word. "We're gonna have to get to the one in Sector 8." Sector 8, the flight deck, wasn't all that far, but who knows how long it would take in the wake of this sudden attack. After all, she didn't know where their attackers had breached and where they had spread. She could only assume the worst as the bridge had no doubt scrambled every possible unit that was not in the medical bay. They had to get weapons and fast.

Brent charged out of the room with both Charli and Chad in tow, their pistols drawn and safeties off. The closer they drew to the flight deck, the more and more sparsely populated the hallways grew, so much so that they quickly became the only ones in the hallway. The group turned a final corner and found themselves blocked in by a sealed off door. Abandoned crates decorating the path up the door.

"I'll try to get it open!" Chad called out, holstering his pistol and beginning to fiddle with the manual override.

Suddenly, the ship shook violently beneath their feet, knocking each of the to the ground and causing Charli's pistol to fly out of her hand and skitter away. The lights flickered, and the intercom and alarms shut off. The ship still shaking, Charli somehow got to her feet and slowly shuffled forward with a hand against the wall to keep her on her feet. Her pistol was just about at her feet now, and she quickly snatched it up in her hands, resisting the increasing urge to succumb to the shaking. Chad yelled through the comms, "The door's been disabled by the bridge! I'm gonna try and cut our way in."

Out of nowhere, an explosion rocked the hallway in front of her, shrieks of metal-on-metal scrapes echoing unpleasantly down the hallway. She could hear several more impacts all around her with shouts coming up from floors above her. Four Fallen Dregs and two Vandals dressed in pitch black armor clamored out of the pod and immediately noticed Charli trying to run around the corner for cover. The Vandals shouted and pointed in their unintelligible language as plasma bolts suddenly streaked past Charli as she took cover around the corner. "We've got company!" She shouted. "Six Fallen around the corner!" The shaking subsided to a noticeable vibration as she backtracked.

Chad was at the door, using his ion cutter to slice cut a human-sized hole in the door; he looked to be about halfway done. "Little busy!" he called back. Brett took cover behind some crates and readied himself whilst Charli retreated by a similar stack of crates a few feet from Brett's. "Cover me while I try to get this door opened!"

The Fallen ran up the hall to follow Charli, ultimately coming up to the turn she took. Two Dregs and a Vandal continued down the hall while the remaining half took up cover on the wall and behind other stacks of crates to take out her squad. Seconds later, the plasma started flying in all directions, forcing Chad to abandon his efforts on opening the door just short of finishing.

She leaned her head out to get off a shot, but nearly got it ripped off by the Vandal's Line Rifle. Several shots rang out behind her, clear indications that the other two had found at least a few milliseconds to take some errant shots at the encroaching Fallen. Charli leaned out again and landed a couple of shots in a Dreg's torso, wounding him severely and taking him out of action as he bled out on the floor. "Nice shot!" Chad called out from behind her. Charli reloaded and nearly got her head ripped off by the Vandal again. "Cover me!" she called out to the others.

After each confirmed the request, Charli steeled her nerves and moved up to the next crate, weaving between plasma bolts as she ducked behind a singular crate closer to the Fallen at the end of the hall. From there, she could see the remaining Dreg just as one of the others pumped a few bullets into his torso and head.

Chad and Brett immediately took the opportunity to move up a few crates and get clearer shots at the Vandal. Using constant pistol fire to suppress the Vandal, Charli moved from cover and rushed the Vandal. Just as she moved, she spotted something blue in the Vandal's hand. It threw whatever it was at her head but missed as if it wasn't even trying. For only a moment, she turned her head and watched its trajectory, planting itself in the middle of the floor between Chad and Brett.

"Grenade!" one of them managed to call out just as it exploded, killing both of them instantly as Charli could only watch in abject horror. Their bodies tossed like ragdolls against the sectioned metal of the walls. Suddenly, Charli's vision flashed black as she too was knocked into a wall, the Vandal slowly advancing on her helpless form. Rage and sadness swirled in her head as tears streamed down her eyes.

Charli, disoriented and enraged, tried to scramble back to her pistol on her hands and knees, reaching out with her hand in one last desperate attempt to save her own skin as the Vandal slowly advanced toward her. Her grip fumbled the pistol for a moment as she could almost feel the Fallen's heavy weight disabling her ability to move and function properly. Then the foot actually came, pinning her to the ground as she stretched to grab the pistol. Human shouts echoed distantly down the halls as Charli struggled to grab the pistol while the Vandal was distracted. After a pair of failed attempts, she finally got a decent grip on the gun. She suddenly twisted, forcing more of the crushing weight on her ribs, and let loose a single bullet through the Vandal's head as it slid down on top of her, its dead weight now pinning her to the ground even more.

Charli was considerably strong, but she could not budge the dead weight on top of her. Heavy footfalls came from both sides now, and shouts, both friendly and not very, echoed down the hallways that flanked her. The Fallen turned the corner first and immediately began peppering the ground all around her. Friendlies turned the corner and immediately returned fire at the Fallen mysteriously shooting at a "dead" body. From beneath the Vandal, Charli watched them exchange fire for several seconds before one of her allies pulled the pin on a grenade and started to throw it. Before he could finish the motion though, a Vandal scored a perfect headshot, causing the grenade to go nowhere close to its intended targets and landing only a few feet from Charli.

Pushed only by the will to survive, Charli gave the Vandal one last heave and successfully tossed it on top of the grenade, scrambling to her feet and sprinting towards the partially-cut door just as it exploded. The explosion rocked the corridor and pierced the air. The shock wave sent Charli careening into the door and painfully busting it open.

Ignoring the pain pulsating throughout her body, Charli got back onto her unsteady feet and found herself in the hangar. In short, it was in shambles. Fires and destroyed ship parts scattered across the floor as frequently as the dead bodies. Smoke threatened to suffocate her as she stood unable to move for several precious seconds. She looked around for any ship that looked to be somewhat space worthy. All she had to do was fly it to the adjacent ship and flee with them to safety.

Charli ran across the dead hangar, praying for any sort of ship. She then spotted a gray fighter with the hatch open. Blast marks covered the sides, and the pilot was slumped over dead, but it would certainly do. She quickly climbed the ladder and tossed the pilot out of the seat, pushing several buttons and flipping a few switches to activate the fighter and close the thick glass hatch. She fastened the belts and felt it start shuttling over to the launch pad. The comms were jammed or knocked out according to the ship, but they would probably be muted by an all call to abandon ship.

It stopped in front of a large metal bulkhead. A message suddenly flashed up in red: **"The launch bay you are attempting to use has been obstructed or disabled."** Charli threw her head back against the seat. She needed to get out of here, and this launch bay was the only feasible way to get off unless she wanted to fight through more Fallen without a weapon. "Think Char, think," she said quietly to herself. A risky idea popped into her head.

Using the manual controls that overrode any automatic input, Charli backed up the fighter and prepped two of the scatter missile onboard. If she backed up and unleashed those, they would blow open the bulkhead and the self-destruction of the fragments would away any debris in her way. At a safe distance, she fingered the launch button, hesitating to fire because of how back it could bite her in the butt. "Death or death," she whispered to herself. She squeezed the trigger and sent two missiles screeching towards the thick bulkhead. The explosions worked as expected, but something was wrong. Gases were violently blowing by her escape craft and trying to push it down the track prematurely. 'The airlock!' she realized. 'I didn't seal the airlock!' All the air that had been in the hangar was now rushing out by the hole into space she created, fruitlessly trying to create an equilibrium with the endless vacuum of space. Undeterred by the new tailwind, Charli primed the engines and released the locks on the fighter, shooting her forward at incredible speed into space.

Powerful laser and plasma cannons exchanged fire in the emptiness of space as a Fallen battleship pummeled what remained of her ship and started focusing fire on her target. Once out, she pushed down on the stick, pointing the nose at Mars and then turning it back towards her one hope of survival.

Suddenly, streaks of plasma streamed past her fighter, causing her to take evasive maneuvers as a Fallen starfighter tried to shoot her down. Acting out of pure adrenaline and instinct, Charli pulled up on the stick and rolled back to level, placing her above and going the opposite way of her attacker. Not wasting the opportunity, Charli increased the engine's' thrust and charged back toward her assailant, unleashing a barrage of her own laser fire and destroying the craft quickly. Something rocked the fighter violently not a moment afterwards. The controls froze up as Charli fought to regain control of her ship. It was only then that an explosion blinded her, the explosion originating from her ship as the anti-matter fields destabilized and detonated. Debris and shockwaves from the onslaught of energy bursting from the ship ripped apart the adjacent ship and any in the immediate area.

Thankfully, Charli was far enough away that the shockwave wouldn't tear her apart, but she didn't see the large piece of metal slam into her ship from behind, tossing her head sharply forward into the glass hatch and turning everything black as she plummeted towards Mars.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sirens blared as Charli slowly regained consciousness. Mars was slowly growing before her very eyes as it spun wildly. She immediately seized the controls, trying to assess her situation, but nothing would work no matter what she tried. The computer was damaged and frozen on a diagram of her small fighter, shaped very similarly to an F-45 assault fighter from the 2120s, showed that her right wing was missing, and the left was severely damaged. Charli quickly realized the futility of anything she tried to do. Mars' gravity had already gotten ahold of her ship, and without functional engines, there was absolutely nothing she could do.

Charli channeled her growing anger into destroying the speaker squealing that horrid alarm. It took several punches, but eventually it finally stopped making that dreadful noise. She fought back tears as she tried to flip a few more switches, trying to find some miraculous way out of her situation. Friction quickly heated up the nose of her fighter, coating the front in angry reds and yellows as the temperature rose. Tears mixed with sweat as Charli accepted the outcome.

She just waited for the sudden impact of the sand…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Charli inhaled sharply, sucking in as much air as possible and continuing to take in breath after breath after that. Her heartbeat thumped fast and loud; she almost thought that anyone could hear it. 'I'm alive?!' was her first thought. Followed by, 'Now where the heck am I…' Charli tried to move a little, but immediately was stopped by something hard and metal, the clang echoing slighlty in her confined space. She moved her hands about the immediate area, making sure she was in one piece as well as determining what she was contained in.

Whatever she was in, it was made of metal, that much she was sure of, but anything beyond that she knew not. She tried to push up against the walls and looked for any sign of a budge, but instead of a give, multiple joints in her body popped loudly. It was then that she noticed a distinct lack of pain anywhere. In fact, she felt cured, as if all of the wear and tear combat put on her body had never been present at all. It was relieving, freeing even now that she didn't have to deal with the back pain she always felt even after short stints in starfighters.

Done reveling in her miraculous healing, she once again found the edges and soon discovered that if she scooted into the metal seat a little, she could sit up. 'Wait a minute,' she thought upon discovering this. 'This chair wasn't made of metal…' Something wasn't right here. Using her elbow, she bashed the right side of her fighter, feeling the once durable alloy basically disintegrate with each hit. Upon the metal's disappearance, a gritty something started to flow into the cockpit.

Sand. Crap. Charli started bashing away more parts of the ship and scooping handfuls of the gathering sand to the side as she tried to dig her way out of the underground. She continued to dig, but more sand kept replacing it. Somewhere above her, she heard heavy footsteps and muffled voices. "Help!" she called out, continuing to dig through the encroaching sand. The footfalls stopped and the voices hushed only for a moment. Two heavy thuds from above sent more sand into her dark bubble of air. Two more thuds flooded more sand into her, negating much of Charli's progress. "Cut it out!" she yelled, desperately hoping that whatever was above her could hear her and help dig her out.

Charli pulled one leg and arm out of the sand that had collapsed on top of it and fell back into the "chair." She felt around her waist for the utility belt and ion cutter that should have been there, but there was no belt to be found. She found several raised sections that had snapping flaps, but they were definitely not from the belt. What Charli really needed was a light or at least something to shed some light on her situation. Charli chuckled softly at her mental pun.

There should have been one on the right side of her helmet. Using her hand, she felt around the right side of it, but couldn't find the button that activated her helmet light. Maybe she forgot which side it was on. She then used her other hand and checked the left side for any sign of a button. Searching in the dark for a few seconds, her fingers touched something that pushed down slightly whenever they passed by it. Charli pressed the button and a dim circle of light pooled wherever she turned. "Ok," she said to herself. "Now I've got light. Just need to find a way out of here." The sound of her own voice almost scared her. It was hoarse at first, but as her sentence went on, her voice seemed to go back to its authoritative yet silky self.

She felt around her tomb. This was definitely the ship she "escaped" in, but now it was rusted in pretty much every place imaginable. The side she'd been digging on was distinctly lacking large pieces of metal that would have been there under normal circumstances. But instead, rusted and jagged edges cut through the opening with most of the it actually being plugged up by red sand. 'Mars?' she questioned in her mind. 'Am I on Mars?'

Finding that answer was not her most pressing matter, and she ultimately pushed the thought out of her mind. She looked around at the rusted confines of her ship and noticed that her armor was now white instead of the blue she was accustomed to. Questions raced through her mind as to what happened. It was made of defined plates like the armor of the flight suit, but after rubbing what she originally thought was ash, she discovered that this armor was actually white and rather smooth at that. She moved each of her limbs. It was definitely lighter than any usable armor she'd used in the past, but after tapping on a plate on each of her arms, it felt stronger than anything she'd used previously. Did her flight suit calcify during the crash? It would explain the durable nature and white color, but it would also be rough and uneven.

Once again, she pushed any theories out of her mind. Charli just wanted out of the ship. She momentarily pondered taking out the other side of the cockpit, but with all the sand on top of her, it would just push the ceiling down and crush her quicker than she could say "Oops." Then again, the ship's frame looked like it would collapse any second; it was a good thing that the ship and the remains of the chair landed upside down and stayed mostly intact.

Now guided by a small light, Charli restarted her digging efforts and started making progress much faster than before. The voices above her continued (possibly they heard something), but she didn't think they were digging or really even trying to find what made a noise that they may or may not have heard. After what felt like hours of struggling with the sands, the voices drifted off without Charli even noticing. She was too focused on getting out of the sand that continued to shift back towards where she was digging, covering her light or her face every now and again. Her arms burned from the effort and sweat dripped onto the front part of her helmet, but she knew that if she took a rest now, the sand would only come back and trap her again. The longer she dug and the more her muscles burned, the looser and less packed in the sand got. Each handful grew easier to push away but also easier to collapse. Despite the pending danger of this, the thoughts of finally getting out exhilarated her. Charli pushed even harder, trying to move fast despite the battle of attrition that was quickly wearing her down.

Finally, she felt her hand shoot through the surface of the sand. She planted her knees in the sand where she was at and focused her efforts on digging a hole big enough to pull herself out. Some sort of pale light pushed through the growing hole as Charli knocked away more sand on her way up. Eventually, her other hand busted a much larger hole, and Charli hauled herself up and out of the sand.

This was definitely Mars. Phobos cast pale light on the otherwise dark sand that surrounded her as she pulled her legs from the hole. Red dunes surrounded the one she had just pulled herself out of with no sign of life in any direction.

Her suit was starting to get stuffy from all the body heat she expelled and heavy breathing that was quickly steadying. She could hear her quick heartbeat thumping inside her head. Charli knew that at least a couple hours had passed as she struggled to dig herself out, and now her arms felt like jelly and her body as though she had just run a marathon. She placed her hands on the sides of her helmet, but stopped just short of pulling it off. If she did, then she would either freeze in Mars' freezing temperatures or suffocate in its carbon dioxide throat was parched, but she had absolutely no provisions on her at all. There had to be some sort of settlement or colony around here somewhere. If only she had a map…Despite the growing pressures, Charli tossed them out of her mind and tried to stand up. She needed to get to the top of the dune and see if there was anything in the distance.

The main difference between moving in the hole and moving on top of the sand was that she was basically crawling up the hole and not walking, meaning that she had her arms' assistance. When she tried to stand up unabated, her legs immediately collapsed under the sudden weight, causing her to roll helplessly down the dune. "Crap!" she shouted as she started tumbling. She couldn't see where she was rolling as any glimpse into the world was quickly smothered by the red sand. Suddenly she was flying uncontrollably and awkwardly through the air, slamming the back of her head on a large rock at the base of the next dune and losing consciousness on impact.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Charli's head hurt. Almost like she'd taken a bag of bricks and smacked herself with them a few times, that's how much it hurt, thumping every few seconds as she felt something gently nudge her shoulder.

"You think she's alive?" a rough robotic voice asked distantly.

"Her vitals are fine," another voice reassured. Charli didn't recognize either of these voices and didn't know if they were hostile or not. The last thing she wanted to do is wake up to the barrel of a rifle and be led at gunpoint.

"What about other parts of her anatomy? People are more than just brains and organs."

A blue flash of light permeated her closed eyelids. "Looks like she whacked her head pretty hard and is suffering from some slight dehydration and hunger, but otherwise, she's fine. Just asleep."

"Should we wake her up? The Cabal are going to be here any second, and I doubt they're going to take us prisoner a second time."

"That's why you have a gun. Y'know, to shoot at them."

"I get that. Look, I'm waking her up. None of us are safe out here until we get back to the ship. Need I remind you that this isn't a transmat zone." Charli heard cloth bend and rub against other cloth followed by a hand shaking her shoulder. "Miss. Miss, you need to wake up," the voice said gently. "We're not safe out here."

Charli opened her eyes and saw a heavy black boot. She followed the shape of the leg and spotted a white pistol holstered at this person's thigh. It was risky, but she thought she could snag it away and use it as leverage to get some answers. Charli pushed herself to her knees and started to get up. "Very good," the robotic voice said. "Take it easy. You look like you took quite a hit…" Charli quickly found the stranger's head and sent an elbow right into his cranium. Grabbing the pistol, she aimed it right at his head and put a knee in his chest, knocking him back. "Who are you? What do you want?" Charli shouted.

The stranger fell onto his back and saw the gun. He tried to reach for the pistol. "Shh! You're going to alert the Cabal."

Charli slapped away the hand, her heart beating wildly. The stranger immediately grabbed a large yellow rifle strapped to his back. She kept her composure and her aim, refusing to back down. "Drop the weapon and answer the questions or I'll blow your brains out!" Charli yelled.

The stranger wore armor that was mostly red but had swooping stripes of black and a similar coloration down the leg and onto the black boot. The red helmet had a wide black visor and what looked like metal feathers or spikes on the sides bearing the same colors as the uniform. "Keep your voice down, or we're all going to be dead. Look," the stranger said, placing his hands on the sides of his helmet and pulling it off as the air hissed out of it. Charli didn't care if he suffocated himself in the Martian atmosphere. "I'm a Guardian too," he said as if the words were supposed to mean something to her. He laid the helmet on the sand next to him and opening his hands to show he was unarmed. This person was actually a blue exo with glowing yellow eyes, something she wasn't used to seeing. "My name is Maximus. We were sent to pick you up." A small and spiked black orb with white dots hovered by Maximus' head, a blue light glowing prominently against his black shell. It almost looked like the night sky and probably accounted for the second voice she heard.

"Too? Pick me up?" Charli questioned. "I'm a lieutenant in the MFN. I'd suggest you grab your helmet and back away before I shoot you."

She had heard of Guardians, but only knew that they were crazies protecting a dead piece of technology on Earth. Word was that it had been on Mars long ago but had moved to Earth as things like the Fallen and Cabal resisted against humanity's, on civilization's, expanding borders.

"The MFN?" the 'guardian' laughed. "The Martian Federation was killed off centuries ago…" Something seemed to click in its brain. "That ghost was right," he whispered.

"Of course I was!" a feminine voice yelled following a whoosh and a small flash of light. Charli turned towards this light and redirected the pistol at a small white orb with a light blue eye and four white spikes hovering a few feet from her face. "A Ghost knows when its found its Guardian. That much I would hope you knew."

Charli put both hands on the pistol and continued pointing at it. "I don't know what you are, and I really don't care. Fact is, I'm about to pull this trigger on the both of you if you don't explain what's going on right now!"

Silence ensued. The 'ghost' floated forward and looked Charli up and down. "Charli Hendricks back in the flesh. You're a little worse for wear, but when we get you back to the Tower, everything will be alright."

Charli backed up a few steps from all three of them. "I'm not going anywhere with either of you! Tower? Guardian? You're nothing but a bunch of loons." She tightened her grip on the pistol and put a finger on the trigger, ready to pull it back.

Maximus put his helmet back on and stood up slowly, Charli immediately spinning on her heel and pointing it back at his head. He raised his hands again. "We're not here to harm you, but the Cabal are, and if you keep shouting, they're going to find us, and then nobody wins." Maximus took a step forward.

_CRACK!_ Charli squeezed the trigger, but Maximus fluidly ducked beneath the shot and wrenched the pistol away from her, pointing it back at her face. "I'm not messing around anymore," he said, sounding much more threatening this time. "Come quietly or I'm going to have to restrain you, and I seriously don't want to do that."

She could see that the threat was not empty. The pistol in her face was, but he would take her down in a hurry, or at least he looked like he could. "Alright," the voice behind her shouted. "Maximus, put the gun down. The most this girl could to you now would be taking a swing at you and missing horribly. If you were going to restrain her, you should have done that while she was asleep. In all honesty, you ought to just give her the gun, so she can at least protect herself.

"Fine," Maximus spat at the Ghost behind Charli. He suddenly spun the pistol around in his hand, holding it out by the barrel. "Take it."

Slowly but surely, Charli felt the threat around her diminish, but the air still remained somewhat tense likely due to the Cabal's presence. While stationed on Mars about a year ago, the Cabal tried to fight their way past the wall of their base near a city called Ares' Haven. Brutes, that was the only way Charli could describe them. They tried to barge their way through their defenses, boasting superior weapons and thick armor, but ultimately, they failed to smash through due to a bombing run led by Charli and a few friends she lost only a month later. In her line of work, death was almost part of the job description.

Charli grabbed the pistol and tried to put it in a holster that did not exist, ending up dropping it in the sand. Once more, she retrieved it quickly and shook any sand out of it but kept it in her hand and started following this Maximus fellow only because she didn't have any other viable options.


End file.
